Business Testimonials

Richard Cogswell is a people-first sales leader. He is an organizational team builder who believes that people, vision, values, and behaviors build winning sales cultures. Richard has held multiple senior sales leadership positions within a number of industries, working across EMEA, the United States, and APAC, within startups and listed multinational companies. Living and working in Singapore, Richard is currently working in Fintech and card issuance across the APAC region.

Ryan Renteria is a CEO coach, diverse board director, and speaker who helps leaders optimize professional and personal growth. Ryan is the author of Lead Without Burnout: Growth with Less Stress for You and Your Team, with praise from 51 leaders including Fortune 500 Chairmen and CEOs. He spent 9 years at Goldman Sachs and large hedge funds. Ryan became a partner and managing director of consumer investments at 25 and after strong returns left Wall Street at 30 for charitable pursuits. He spent 9 years as an analytics advisor to Indiana Pacers coaches and executives. Ryan was part of the ownership group of the Milwaukee Brewers’ AA Minor League Baseball team and a potential MLS team. He earned a BA from Stanford University. Learn more at TheStretchFive.com.

Deb Feder is founder and CEO of Feder Development LLC, a coaching and strategy firm focused on helping lawyers and professionals bring in consistent clients through curious, confident conversations and changing the way we view productivity for professionals. Prior to founding Feder Development, Deb practiced corporate law for 15 years. Deb is a frequent speaker on business development, productivity, networking, authenticity, and communication.

John Baldoni is author of Grace Under Pressure: Leading Through Change and Crisis (Post Hill Press) is a globally recognized leadership educator, certified Master Corporate Executive Coach, and author of sixteen books that have been translated into ten languages. John is also a member of the renowned Marshall Goldsmith 100 coaches, a group of executive coaches and thought leaders from the worlds of business, academia, and social service. John has authored more than 800 leadership columns for a variety of online publications including Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Inc.com.

Antonia Bowring is a highly credentialed, top New York executive coach working primarily with founders, C-Suite executives, and leadership teams. One of her areas of expertise is helping neurodiverse leaders create the necessary scaffolding to leverage their gifts and maintain their focus. She is a frequent speaker to companies and groups on topics ranging from the leadership mindset, ADHD in the workplace, and communication best practices. Her articles through the Forbes Coaches Council are widely read and The American Reporter named her one of the 10 leadership coaches to watch in 2022.

Rana Salman, MBA, PhD, collaborates with sales, marketing, and enablement leaders to improve sales effectiveness and overall customer experience. She is the founder of Salman Consulting, LLC, and co-founder of the sales networking group WiSE (Women in Sales Enablement). She has been named one of the year’s “Women Making an Impact in Sales Enablement” (2022) by Sales Enablement Pro and one of the “Top Female Sales Practitioners for Your Next Panel, Presentation, or Podcast” (2021) by Sales Hacker.

Campaign Highlights include Authority Magazine, Mentors Collective, Small Business Currents, Upsales Revenue Journal, DestinationCRM, The Sales Whisperer, The International Journal of Sales Transformation, Business Leader Magazine, HR.COM, Young Upstarts, CEO Blog Nation, I Can Do Anything Podcast, SalesTech Star, High Tech Freedom Sales Podcast

Selena Rezvani is an internationally known leadership speaker and 3X author, TEDx-er, and an award-winning journalist. She trains some of the brightest minds on leadership development at places like The World Bank, Microsoft, Under Armour, Pfizer, and Nestlé – helping emerging leaders enhance their presence and self-confidence. Selena’s advice has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Oprah.com, Today, The LA Times, and ABC and NBC television. Selena’s latest book, Quick Confidence, is the culmination of a viral newsletter she started on LinkedIn, where she shares bite-sized, everyday tips on boosting confidence. Having amassed a following of over 500k followers and subscribers across platforms, Selena was honored as a Fast Company Top Content Creator in 2021. In addition to coaching and consulting emerging leaders, Selena offers workshops to teams and conferences including her sought-after “Quick Confidence: Own Your Power” workshop. Today, she writes a column for MSNBC’s Know Your Value on the most pressing leadership and career issues.

Nadell is President of InfoLink Screening Services, Inc. For over 17 years Nadell has been the established industry expert on the legal issues surrounding employment background screening and speaks nationally on the subject.

Inspiring personal and professional growth, Mike Fata co-founded Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods in 1998, and since that time has become a leader in natural health, nutrition, hemp foods, organic agriculture, sustainable business, and entrepreneurship. Mike is the host of the Founder to Mentor podcast, lifetime member (past chairman) of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), lifetime member (past chairman) of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO Manitoba), and investor/advisor to a portfolio of companies. After multiple nine-figure exits in his industry, Mike now coaches and mentors natural products entrepreneurs, helping them discover their authentic business passions and live their best lives every day.

Known as a dynamic, engaging speaker, Joe Mull teaches leaders and business owners how to be better bosses and create destination workplaces. He is the author of three books: Cure for the Common Leader, No More Team Drama, and his latest, Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work. He is also the host of the popular Boss Better Now podcast and founder of the BossBetter Leadership Academy. Joe previously served as head of Learning & Development for Physician Services at a top U.S. healthcare system. Prior to his years of service in healthcare, Joe spent a decade working in leadership and program development roles in student affairs in higher education. Joe holds the coveted Certified Speaking Professional™ (CSP®) designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA).

Friederike Fabritius, MS, is a neuroscientist and trailblazer in the field of neuroleadership. Her brain-based leadership programs have transformed how Fortune 500 executives think, innovate, and navigate change. Fabritius is a thought leader and keynote speaker, known for engaging global audiences at organizations like Google, Ernst & Young (EY), Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Adecco, Accenture, Deloitte, BMW, Bayer, SAP, Harvard Business Review, trivago, and Audi. Fabritius is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Brain-Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Quit and How to Get Them to Stay. As well as the award-winning book The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier. An alumna of McKinsey & Company and the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, she serves on the prestigious German Academy of Science and Engineering. She is fluent in six languages and has delivered keynotes to executives in over 164 countries.

Dr. Shirley Davis is President and CEO of SDS Global Enterprises, Inc. She is the former Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Workplace Strategies for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Dr. Davis has also been a featured expert on NBC’s The Today Show, USA Today, National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal, Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, The Washington Post, and Inclusion Magazine. She earned the highest designation in the speaking industry as a Certified Speaking Professional, bestowed by the National Speaker’s Association, which put her in the ranks of only 15% of speakers worldwide. She is the author of the best-selling book, “Reinvent Yourself: Strategies for Achieving Success in Every Area of Your Life,” and “The Seat: How to Get Invited to the Table When You’re Over-Performing and Undervalued.”

She continues to consult, coach, and present to leaders at all levels of an organization, in all business sectors, and across a number of industries.

Soon Yu is an international speaker and award winning author on innovation and design who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine and New York Times. He most recently served as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation, parent organization to over 30 global apparel companies, including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Nautica and Wrangler. While at VF, Soon created a $2 billion innovation pipeline, established 3 global innovation centers, and initiated industry-leading design best practices. Prior to this, he worked at The Clorox Company and Chiquita Brands, where he won company-wide awards for best advertising, best promotion and best new product, and gained industry recognition from the Webby Award, Favorite Website Award and Dope Award. He is a highly sought after speaker on innovation, design and entrepreneurship, and teaches at Parsons School of Design and often guest lectures at Stanford University (where he received his MBA and is active with the GSB Asian Alumni Association).

MICHAEL GARRY, CFP(R), JD/MBA, is a Certified Financial Planner practitioner and a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors and the Financial Planning Association with over twenty years of experience. He has worked as an attorney at two successful Philadelphia law firms and a financial consultant at Merrill. He oversaw the operations of Global Investment Management before forming his own company, YardleyWealth Management, and his law firm, Yardley Estate Planning, LLC. He has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Money magazine, Fortune, Kiplinger, Businessweek.com, CNNMoney.com, and Consumer Reports Money Adviser, among others.

Brent Keltner, Ph.D. is President of Winalytics LLC and created Winalytics’ revenue acceleration and sales growth methodology. Winalytics works with growth-stage to enterprise customers in a range of industries, including the education, human capital, SaaS, business operations, retail and marketing communications sectors. Before starting Winalytics, Brent was a revenue leader in both early-stage and enterprise companies where he successfully scaled growth. He began his career as a Ph.D. social scientist and qualitative researcher at Stanford University and the RAND Corporation. He has published articles on go-to-market strategy in the Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, and The Financial Times.

Tim Brown is a serial entrepreneur, devoted father and community leader. His business successes have spanned several industries, including radio broadcasting, printing, high technology to oil and gas commodities. A long-time Colorado resident, he has served on various non-profit boards and two family foundations, including The Colorado Meth Project, Man Therapy, Denver Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, Colorado Uplift and Lead Like Jesus. Tim returned to Smith Publicity to promote his second book, Old School with New Tools: The Extra 5% that Takes You to the Top of Your Sales Game and Keeps You There.

Donald Lee Sheppard emerged from humble beginnings in a Northern Ontario mining town to become a leader in employee benefits consulting and communications. During his career he rapidly rose through the ranks of companies such as Manulife, William M. Mercer, and Johnson & Higgins. Later, Sheppard built and sold his own employee communications consulting firm, Sheppard Associates. Currently the CEO of Sheppard Properties, LLC, he is actively involved in a host of charitable ventures. He pedaled coast-to-coast in a cross-country cycling fundraiser and has had a significant positive impact on youth soccer in America, receiving several awards for outstanding community service. Don has been featured in media across U.S. and Canada including INC, Thrive Global, The Hill, Salon, BC Business, CBC, and HR.com.

Former long time COO of Qwest, a $12 billion telecommunications and media company, Teresa Taylor is a sought after as a speaker on topics including leadership, economic development, and innovation. Her book, The Balance Myth, has been featured in Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, Bloomberg, CNN and many other news outlets.

Dan Pontefract is best-selling author, leadership strategist, thinker, and founder and CEO of The Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture. Media highlights include: The Economist, CBS Moneywatch, Fast Company, HR Reporter, HR.com, Globe and Mail, Breakfast TV, Thrive Global, etc.

Edward S. (“Ted”) Brodkin, M.D. is Associate Professor of Psychiatry with tenure at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Founder and Director of the Adult Autism Spectrum Program at Penn Medicine. He has been honored by Philadelphia Magazine as a Top Doctor in the Philadelphia region for 14 years, and has been honored as one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly Medical for the past 13 years. He received his A.B. Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He did his residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in neuroscience research at the Yale University School of Medicine, as well as a fellowship in genetics research at Princeton University. His research lab and clinical program at the University of Pennsylvania focus on social neuroscience and the autism spectrum in adults.

Ashley A. Pallathra, M.A. is a clinical researcher and therapist. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree with Distinction in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, she received a Master’s degree in Psychology and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She is the author of numerous published research articles and a book chapter in the fields of autism research, social neuroscience, and social-emotional functioning in youth. Her current research and clinical work center around strengthening social competence and building resilience in children and adolescents from diverse community settings.

Norty Cohen is a creative/account guy/researcher whose agency, Moosylvania, develops programming for top national brands. His agency houses a research facility on its campus – and they use national research services to continually dig into consumer motivation. He is featured speaker on national marketing panels and has presented his work at AT&T, Western Union, Taco Bell, Burger King and numerous CMO conferences. The updated study is featured annually in Business Insider and other publications. His other passions include serving as an Executive Board Member of Gateway to Hope, a Breast Cancer Lifeline and playing music in a rock band. He lives in New York and St. Louis.

Andrew Tarvin is the world’s first humor engineer, teaching people how to get better results while having more fun. Combining his background as a project manager at Procter & Gamble with his experience as a stand-up comedian, he reverse-engineers the skill of humor in a way that is practical, actionable, and gets results in the workplace. Through his company, Humor That Works, Andrew has worked with more than 35,000 people at over 250 organizations, including Microsoft, the FBI, and the International Association of Canine Professionals. Andrew has been featured in more than 50 publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fast Company. He has appeared on affiliates for ABC, CBS, and FOX, and has been the guest on more than 40 podcasts. His TEDx talk has been viewed over 4 million times and is the most watched talk on humor.

Dr Rebekah Louisa Smith (aka Rebekah Film Dr) was born in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. From humble beginnings working as a personal assistant at corporate companies, she worked her way up to become an award-winning consultant and media personality who now has over 10 years of film festival strategy consulting experience.

After choosing not to pursue a career in academia, Rebekah began her film industry career in 2009, working as one of the producers of Wales’ most successful national horror film festivals, the Abertoir Horror Festival, which is part of the prestigious European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation.

Rebekah and the hard-working team behind her company, The Film Festival Doctor, are creators of success and are committed to nurturing filmmakers in order to help them secure film festival screenings, win awards and a positive recognition within the film industry. Currently her company has won over 800 awards for their clients and her team have supported over 848 creatives across the world, enlightening and inspiring their journey towards achieving their goals and following their filmmaking dreams.

Rebekah supports individuals to adopt new strategies, mindsets and communication techniques which produce extraordinary results.

Richard Shell is Chair of the Wharton School’s Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department. His books on negotiation, influence, and success have sold over half a million copies in seventeen languages, and his online course on Success has reached tens of thousands of people around the world. An award-winning teacher and scholar, Richard led the most recent redesign of the Wharton School’s MBA curriculum and helped create its required Responsibility in Business course. He directs week-long workshops on negotiation and strategic persuasion for senior executives. He has won multiple teaching and scholarly awards, had his work cited by the United States Supreme Court, and taught people from all walks of professional life, from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 CEOs to FBI hostage negotiators, Navy SEALs, and United Nations peacekeepers.

Wife, mom, and dedicated student of Muay Thai kickboxing and Brazilian jiujitsu, Nancy Richardson began her career with a BA from the University of Washington and an MBA from Ohio State University. After more than twenty years of working in large, corporate environments, including Starbucks and lululemon—where she put in insane hours, had little time with her family, and felt others determined her worth—she decided to design her own life by tapping into the era of start-ups and passion projects, building meaningful brands, and working from home to spend more time with her family. Nancy is the Co-Founder and Principal Strategist of Dragon Lady and Mom ’n’ Pop Shop, two women-led, Vancouver-based marketing start-ups that embody the concept of working freely. Her mission is to embolden the workforce of the future.

Shirish Nadkarni is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience creating consumer businesses that have scaled to tens of millions of users worldwide. After starting his career at Microsoft where he engineered the acquisition of Hotmail, Shirish founded TeamOn Systems, a mobile wireless email pioneer that was acquired by BlackBerry and served as the core foundation for Blackberry Internet E-mail, which had over 50 million users at its peak. After BlackBerry, he co-founded Livemocha, the world’s largest language learning site with 15+ million members that was later acquired by Rosetta Stone. Shirish is the Chair of the GoVertical Startup Creation Workshop, TiE Entrepreneur Institute and the Z5 Catalyst Funding Initiative at TiE Seattle, a global non-profit focused on fostering entrepreneurship.

Josh Levine is an educator, designer, and best-selling author, but above all, he is on a mission to help organizations design a culture advantage. His book presents the framework and tools business leaders need to understand, design, and manage their own culture.

For more than 15 years Josh has helped build culture-driven brands and as Principal of Great Mondays continues his work with technology and social enterprise organizations.

Josh is sought after for his inspiring and educational keynotes, that not only reveal new insights, but inspire new action. His highly entertaining and accessible writing has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Fast Company, INC, NPR, Huffington Post, KCBS, and the Design Management Journal.

Marilyn Gist is an expert on developing leaders who has long observed the quality of relationships leaders must form to work effectively with others. Seeing that we don’t gain support by stepping on others’ dignity, she developed a powerful model based on leader humility – the tendency to feel and display a deep regard for others’ dignity. Leader humility yields great results. Marilyn’s work has won numerous awards. Her academic career spans the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Washington where she held the Boeing Endowed Professorship of Business Management, and Seattle University where she served as Associate Dean, Professor of Management, and Executive Director of the Center for Leadership Formation. Marilyn led Seattle University’s Leadership EMBA degree program (anchored in a model of leader humility) from its inception in 2006 to rank as high as number eleven in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Marilyn earned her BA from Howard University and her MBA and PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Tanvir Bhangoo is the CEO of TB Momentum, a training and consulting firm of former elite athletes turned consultants, committed to maximizing team and sales performance in disruptive environments at F500 and high growth companies. A highly sought-after speaker, Tanvir shows organizations how to stay focused amid disruption through keynote speaking, workshops, and consulting. He also hosts the successful ‘Sports to Business’ podcast.

As a former VP of Technology at Freshii and Director at RBI (Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes), Tanvir has led industry giants in end-to-end digital transformations, orchestrated multinational launches, and is a member of Forbes Technology Council.

Over a 30-year career in the US Navy, Former Rear Admiral Danelle Barrett served as Director of Current Operations at U.S. Cyber Command, and the Navy’s Deputy Chief Information Officer and Director of Cyber Security.  Her assignments included deployments to Iraq, support of operations in Afghanistan and providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. Barrett is an author, speaker, consultant, and an Independent Director on several Corporate Boards. She lives outside of Buffalo, New York, where she also signs up to be an extra in movies, just for fun.

Dr. Eli Joseph is an American academic who is active in behavioral finance, data analytics, statistics, and quantitative finance. Despite the countless number of rejected applications he has had while seeking a career path, Dr. Joseph is currently serving as a faculty member at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. He is also a partner and medical examiner at ExamOne, a Quest Diagnostics company.

Dr. Joseph is also a TEDx speaker who has delivered a powerful message on how you can determine performance and success without keeping track of a scoreboard.

In addition to being a contributor at Entrepreneur Magazine, Dr. Joseph has served as a member of TED, For(bes) The Culture, and the Grammy Recording Academy.

As a medical examiner, Dr. Joseph is working with Fortune 500 insurance firms like AIG, Prudential, Williams Penn, John Hancock, New York Life, and State Farm Life Insurance.

Kiner was featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Parade magazine, Business Insider, Huffington Post, among many others.

She is a founder/CEO, executive coach, mom, and author. In 2015, Mikaela founded Reverb, to help companies create healthy, inclusive cultures that engage and inspire employees. Prior to Reverb, Mikaela held HR leadership roles at companies including Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon, PopCap Games, and Redfin.

She holds a master’s degree in HR with a Certificate in Organizational Development from the New School for Social Research. She’s a certified executive coach with a credential from the International Coaching Federation, and a certified practitioner of Brené Brown’s Dare to LeadTM curriculum.

Having come from the world of investment banking working on mergers and acquisitions, Jonathan Slain has seen firsthand how businesses with successful leadership mistakenly hit plateaus. Now, working exclusively with founders, owners, CEOs, and management teams, Slain uses that experience to help best-in-class companies worldwide achieve their vision of success. Whether working with entrepreneurial niche/specialty firms or large corporations ($10M+ in annual revenue), the direction and insight Slain imparts positions businesses to advance to levels they dream about often, but rarely achieve on their own.

www.recession.com

Kerry Goyette is the Founder & President of Aperio Consulting Group, a consulting firm that leverages the latest in workplace analytics and research-based strategies to build high-performance teams. She is a Certified Professional Behavior Analyst and Certified Forensic Interviewer with postgraduate studies in psychometrics. Kerry is an international speaker with the popular TEDx talk, “Stop Trying to Motivate Your Employees”, she was the keynote speaker at the Global HR Inside Summit in Vienna, Austria, the keynote speaker for the Best Employers Awards in Barbados, and has been featured in Fast Company, CEO World Magazine, Business.com, Quartz at Work and Innovation Enterprise.

Kerry was featured in Harvard Business Review, CNBC Make It, Fast Company, BNN Bloomberg (TV), New York Post, Inc., HuffPost, Kochie’s in Australia, Project Management Institute, and Business Insider.

Barbara Annis, author of Results at the Top: Using Gender Intelligence to Create Breakthrough Growth. Barbara is the founding Partner of Gender Intelligence Group (GIG), and is a world-renowned expert on Inclusive Leadership through Gender & Cultural Intelligence, advocating the value and practice of this new type of leadership in Fortune 500 companies and numerous organizations worldwide. She is the author of Same Words, Different Language, Third Edition, and coauthor of several books, including Gender Intelligence and Work With Me. Barbara is chair emeritus of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard Kennedy School and was recently conferred the International Alliance for Women, Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dean Karrel is an Executive and Professional Career Coach. He is the instructor of twelve courses available on LinkedIn Learning and has also been in senior leadership positions for more than three decades with major global publishing companies.

John Hornick has more than 30 years of experience as a counselor and litigator at the Finnegan IP law firm, one of the largest IP firms in the world. As the founder of Finnegan’s 3D Printing Working Group, he advises clients about how 3D printing may affect their businesses. Hornick frequently speaks and writes on 3D printing and has been recognized as a thought leader in this space. As the only IP attorney selected by the U.S. Comptroller General Forum on Additive Manufacturing, he is also a juror for the International Additive Manufacturing Award.

Providing insight into this world-changing technology, Hornick’s articles have been published in outlets such as 3D Printing Industry, The Journal of 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing, Wired Innovation, and 3D Printing World.

Aimee Cohen, author of Woman Up!: Overcome the 7 Deadly Sins that Sabotage Your Success. Aimee Cohen is a Keynote Speaker, Career Expert, Executive Coach, Trainer, Facilitator, and Author. She owns Cohen Career Consulting and is a contributing writer for the Denver Business Journal, facilitates the LINK to Leadership program for the Leadership Investment, received recognition as an Outstanding Women in Business Award nominee, has appeared as a career expert on numerous television programs and has been cited in Glamour magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and the Denver Post, and was featured in Denver Woman magazine.

Ron Sukenick is the president and founder of the Relationship Strategies Institute and a presenter, consultant, and business coach. He is the author of Networking Your Way to Success and a contributor to the New York Times bestseller Masters of Networking. Ken Williams is a presenter and mentor with a local marketing business. He is a former sales manager and has experience working in human resources and customer service, areas in which he now trains business professionals in improving. They are the coauthors of 21 Days to Success Through Networking.

Stacey Hanke’s passion is teaching others how to communicate with influence Monday to Monday®. As a keynote speaker and mentor to c-suite executives, she helps individuals see through the eyes and ears of their audiences. The result is career-changing insights. Over the last twenty-plus years, Stacey has trained more than 15,000 leaders, salespeople, and business professionals across the United States and abroad. Stacey Hanke, Inc., the company she founded in 2004, provides keynotes, training, and coaching for organizations in a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, retail, advertising, financial, and insurance. Stacey’s clients encompass Fortune 500 companies and household brands such as Coca-Cola, GE, General Mills, FedEx, Kohl’s, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Adobe. Recognized as one of the National Speakers Association’s “Top 6 Under 40,”  she has emceed TedX.

Jim Warner’ has worked with over 2,500 CEOs in multinational public companies, entrepreneurships, partnerships, and family businesses. He is also the author of Aspirations of Greatness and Facing Pain—Embracing Love. Jim is an alumnus of the University of Michigan and Harvard Business School (OPM program). He is a member of World Presidents’ Organization. www.JimWarnerGroup.com

Kaley Klemp is a sought-after facilitator, speaker and coach and an expert in small-group dynamics and leadership development and has worked with more than 175 YPO forums and over 50 executive teams to uncover and address the issues that block peak performance. Klemp is a graduate of Stanford University, where she earned a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in Sociology, with a focus on Organizational Behavior.   Visit KaleyKemp.com

Anna N. Schlegel is a native of Catalunya, and the co-founder of Kenya’s “Imagine Educating Everyone” and “Women in Localization” which was started in California. She has worked in globalization teams for over twenty years with firms including Cisco, VMware, Xerox, and NetApp and for two localization vendors as the CEO and general manager. Her work has been published on Forbes.com, Gala.com, Multilingual.com, and other research industry forums. Anna is a respected leader in the globalization community. She frequently delivers lectures, webinars, keynotes and round tables at universities, corporations, and other international organizations. She lives with her family in Santa Clara, California.

The Trispective Group focuses on understanding and improving the people side of business. Through their extensive work in many companies, they’ve learned what it takes to develop effective, healthy and sustainable leaders, teams and organizations. Clients have included companies such as PetSmart, Kaiser, Orbitz, and others.

Website: www.trispectivegroup.com

Brian Marcel is the founder and Chairman of International Bar Code System (IBCS) Group, known for bringing the game-changing barcode technology to a part of the world in desperate need for change. Since its start in 1988, he has built the IBCS Group into the top enterprise mobility integrator in Central and Eastern Europe. With more than 35 years of hands-on, high-level senior and corporate entrepreneurial experience, Marcel—known as “Mr. Mentorvator”—has helped seven entrepreneurs become millionaires. His goal is to do the same for ten more people in the next five years.

Andrew is the CEO and Co-Founder of Aspirent, a management consulting firm focused on analytics. He has extensive experience building Analytical Solutions for a wide range of companies, from Fortune 500s to small non-profits. Andrew focuses on helping organizations utilize their data to make impactful decisions that drive revenue through monetization strategies. He has been building analytical solutions for over 25 years and is excited to share these practical methods, tools, and techniques with a wider audience.

Jesse Newton is the author of Simplify Work; Crushing Complexity to Liberate Innovation, Productivity and Engagement. He is the founder and CEO of Simplify Work; a global management consulting firm that helps organizations throw off the shackles of debilitating complexity and reignite top performance.

Steven L. Blue, MBA, is CEO of Miller Ingenuity, a global supplier of mission-critical components in the transportation industry.

Ed McLaughlin is the founder & CEO of Blue Sunsets LLC, a real estate and angel investment firm based in Darien, CT. Previously, McLaughlin founded and served as chairman & CEO of United Systems Integrators (USI) Corporation, a corporate real estate outsourcing firm, sold to Johnson Controls (JCI) in 2005. In 2001, he earned Entrepreneur of the Year honors from Ernst & Young, and USI was named to the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing companies. A member of the Board of Governors for Tufts Medical Center, McLaughlin founded its David E. Wazer Breast Cancer Research Fund. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. Active in philanthropy, McLaughlin lives with his wife in Connecticut and has three adult children.

Wyn Lydecker is the founder of Upstart Business Planning, where she works with entrepreneurs to develop plans that answer the questions investors ask most often. Previously, she was Managing Director of Business Plans International in New York and Co-Director of the Small Business Resource Center at Norwalk Community College. Lydecker has an MBA in finance and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She serves on the board of a local nonprofit she helped found, At Home In Darien. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and has two adult children.

Losey’s book helps readers understand if they have enough money to retire, how long it will last, how much you can take out, and the best way to invest. Retire in a Weekend answers the 10 most popular questions and addresses the 5 biggest concerns that people have about retiring. Losey, “America’s Retirement Strategist,” is a highly sought-after advisor, educator and author because he makes the complicated and mundane topics of investing and retirement fun.

Ryan Poliakoff is inaugural president of The Ocean Palms, a $100 million condominium property in South Florida. Co- author Gary Poliakoff, one of the world’s foremost authorities on community association law, is the author of a nationally published treatise, The Law of Condominium Operations.

Gary Carmell owns a real estate investment management firm based in California and Texas. He specializes in the acquisition, development, and management of apartment communities throughout the United States, where his company owns and operates more than twenty thousand units with a value of over $3 billion. A Chartered Financial Analyst, Mr. Carmell received his B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles in political science and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.

Gina Barnett, author of Play the Part: Master Body Signals to Connect and Communicate for Business Success (McGraw-Hill). Since 2011, Barnett’s been speaker coach for the main stage TED Conference. She is the founder of Barnett International, Inc., an executive communications consulting firm. She’s coached and consulted with thought leaders in finance, technology, healthcare, science, and the arts.

Dr. Mario Moussa and Dr. Derek Newberry are the authors of Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance. Dr. Moussa teaches in the Executive Programs at Wharton School of Executive Education. Dr. Newberry is a lecturer at the Wharton School. Connect with Dr. Moussa at www.moussaconsulting.com, and with Dr. Newberry via Twitter, @derekonewberry.

Create value for your customers and capture value for your shareholders by unlocking the secrets of your customer chains. This thought provoking book by two global strategy experts offers a proven approach for solving a company’s most difficult growth challenges. Brown is the co-founder of Blue Canyon Partners, Inc., a strategy consulting firm that helps businesses develop and implement growth strategies involving strategic customer and channel partner relationships.

Figure 1 Publishing is a Vancouver-based award winning publisher producing stunning illustrated books and savvy, bestselling business titles. www.figure1publishing.com

Award-winning author Dave Cook, CEO and founder of Sales Training On-the-Go, is one of the most in-demand experts on sales training, coaching, and motivation around the world. Cook is the #1 rated producer at Business and Legal Resources (BLR), with awards including: CEO / President’s Club Award for Outstanding Sales Achievement for all eleven years of his employment and the Joe Berneski Leadership Award for Outstanding Leadership Skills. With unparalleled expertise, Cook’s training will help anyone to rise to the top of their field and achieve their greatest professional goals, faster than they ever thought possible.

John is the CEO of Asher Strategies, a high-level growth strategy consulting firm focused on improving sales. Asher is a #1 rated speaker for Vistage, a world-wide network of CEOs. Over the last two decades, he has mentored a large cadre of speakers and trainers that has fueled the growth of ASHER. Asher has held a variety of positions, but a lot of what he learned about leadership and sales he picked up in the Navy, where he served as captain of two nuclear-powered fast attack submarines before becoming the program manager for a billion-dollar software development program. After co-founding an engineering firm in 1986, Asher and his team grew the company at a compounded growth rate of 42 percent per year for 14 straight years. He later started a sales and marketing advisory business, training over 70,000 salespeople in 22 countries on his efficient and effective sales process to quickly close new business.

Rood is a self-taught software engineer with over 30 years’ experience. He has worked with a wide range of companies including Charles Schwab, Cisco Systems, AT&T, SBC, Pacific Bell, The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, The Mirage Hotel and Casino, US Sprint, Ricoh Silicon Valley, Ricoh Innovations and RSA Security.

Most of Rood’s contracts ended after one or two years and unemployment became a frequent challenge in his life. He knew then that he had to become an expert on money management or he would not survive. Between 2004 and 2006, Rood figured out the right way to manage his money so he could eliminate his dependence on a paycheck and developed the Paycheck Independence Day money management system to solve this problem.

Hyun was born in Seoul, immigrated to the United States at a young age, and has since worked and lived in numerous countries.  For the past two decades, he has worked with many global Fortune 500 companies in various capacities. His experiences include working as a managing director for an international consultancy, as vice president of Global Strategy and vice president of Asia Region for a multibillion-dollar US-based company. He received his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech, Masters degree from Northwestern, and MBA from Carnegie Mellon.

A marketing guidebook intended to give readers expert tips and advice on writing effective positioning concepts. Martha Guidry (The Concept Queen), the principal at The Rite Concept, has more than fifteen years of combined brand management, concept development and research experience. After completing her MBA at Harvard, Martha spent six years in consumer marketing for Procter & Gamble and Hasbro Toys. She has developed concepts for launching new products and services into the marketplace in a variety of industries for organizations such as Arby s, DuPont, Bush Beans, Amway, Pizza Hut, Dial, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She is a past director of the board for the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) and the Connecticut chapter of the American Marketing Association. She is a popular presenter at conferences and professional meetings and has published numerous articles in business periodicals.

Dushinski is the CEO of the International Mobile Marketing Business Network and President of Mobile Marketing Profits, a mobile marketing training firm based in Denver, Colorado. She teaches mobile marketing for the University of Virginia’s Online Graduate Certificate in eMarketing. Kim was named one of the Mobile Women to Watch 2010 by MobileMarketer.com.

With his wife, Naomi Seligman, Ernest von Simson ran the Research Board, the quietly powerful think tank that observed, shaped, and guided the development of the computer industry. He got to know and admire the giants of those years – including Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy. He holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from New York University. His articles have been published by Harvard Business Review, Fortune, ComputerWorld and many other publications.

In every industry, some brands stand out from the crowd because of their distinct way of doing things. Bold is about 14 such businesses. They put purpose before profit, go beyond what customers expect, and relentlessly differentiate themselves from everyone else. Shaun Smith is founder and partner in the consulting firm Smith+Co, which works with brands around the world. A thought leader on the subject of customer experience strategy, he has appeared often on CNBC’s “Ask the Expert” program. Andy Milligan is a consultant on brand and business culture. For almost 20 years he has advised major organizations on strategies for brand building, customer experience and internal culture.

Dr. Davis writes about the extra pressure many individuals face when they begin a new position and find they are the first of a kind or a pioneer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in General Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, a Masters in Community Psychology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Development from The Union Institute and University. He has worked in a variety of organizations, both public and private in management positions for over 25 years, and is an organizational and diversity consultant. Currently he is a Professor of Business Administration Management at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut.

Steve Repak, CFP®, is an Army veteran, motivational speaker and consultant. He has helped countless ordinary people turn their finances around with his inspiring personal finance presentations and one-on-one financial counseling. He was the 1995 Fort Bliss, Texas Non Commissioned Officer of the Year and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Management Communications from Amridge University.

Tim Cole is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Compass Alliance. His experience is exceptionally broad – across sales, marketing, human resources, training, market access, and leadership development. He is a multiple winner of Excellence in Leadership Awards and is regarded as one of the most highly respected veterans in the healthcare arena.

As the leading expert on penny stocks, Leeds is frequently contacted by top media organizations like CNN, NBC, CBS, and FOX for his comments and views.

Dr. Curtis L. Odom is Principal and Managing Partner of Prescient Training Strategists, LLC, a consulting firm focusing on integrated talent management, and author of Stuck in the Middle: A Generation X View of Talent Management. He has over 15 years of experience in talent development, performance consulting, training, and instructional design as a practitioner, researcher, author and speaker.

Dr. Odom earned his doctorate of education from Pepperdine University and has been industry certified as both a Human Capital Strategist and Strategic Workforce Planner from the Human Capital Institute. Formerly serving in the United States Navy, he is currently a member of the International Society for Performance Improvement, the American Society for Training and Development and American Mensa.

Dr. R. Kay Green is the CEO and president of RKG Marketing Solutions, Inc. and an online professor and course developer for several major universities. She holds a doctorate of business administration in marketing and has been featured on Great Women Speakers, Black Experts, and Guru.com.

Boillot is CEO of HB Agency, an integrated marketing firm building brands for such clients as HP, ING, EMC, and many other companies. Nicolas is a co-founder of Middlebury College’s MiddCORE, an intensive series of courses and programs focused on Creativity, Opportunity, Risk and Entrepreneurship. He is involved with several non-profits focused on business leadership and the environment.

Info Today/Plexus Publishing is the publisher of Information Today, as well as other periodicals, books, directories, and online products; and is the organizer of Computers in Libraries, Streaming Media, Enterprise Search Summit, and other prestigious conferences and exhibitions for the library, information & knowledge management communities. projects Smith Publicity promoted:

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson (The book upon which the HBO series is based)

Web of Conspiracy: A Guide to Conspiracy Theory Sites on the Internet by James F. Broderick & Darren W. Miller

Dancing With Digital Natives: Staying in Step With the Generation That’s Transforming the Way Business Is Done by Michelle Manafy

Research on Main Street: Using the Web to Find Local Business and Market Information by Marcy Phelps

The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns by Kim Dushinski

Point, Click, and Save: Mashup Mom’s Guide to Saving and Making Money Online By Rachel Singer Gordon

Trenton: A Novel by John P. Calu & David A. Hart

Barber’s book shows businesspeople how to inspire—not just motivate—others by tapping into their dreams and tying them to corporate goals. Terry is also known as “America’s Chief Inspiration Officer” and “chief inspirator” for Grizzard Communications Group, which serves the nonprofit health care segment, as well as colleges and universities, in the area of philanthropic branding. He speaks every week across the country on creating an inspiring culture.

Les Trachtman is currently the CEO of The Trachtman Group – focused on helping companies grow and scale, as well as managing director (and majority investor) of Purview, an early stage company focused on disrupting the medical imaging business. He has lectured at numerous universities across the country including the Harvard Business School, the MIT Sloan School of Business, University of Southern California, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Kent State University, University of Maryland Smith School of Business, Union College, and Quinnipiac University School of Business.

Dudley Slater is the co-founder and fifteen-year CEO of Integra Telecom, he grew the company from nine to over two thousand employees, transitioning it from a start-up to national prominence as one of the ten largest fiber-based telecommunications companies in the United States. He attributes his company’s success to its people. Slater partnered with other leaders of iconic, nationally recognized organizations, to refine the knowledge and techniques that make up the practical, everyday tenets of the fusion leadership. Slater earned a bachelor of science in geophysics from UCLA and a master in business administration from the Harvard Business School.

Tope Ganiyah Fajingbesi is an international Chartered Accountant (ACA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) based in Washington, DC. She has 15 years accounting and financial management experience working with Big Four public accounting firms, Fortune 500 corporations, and nonprofit organizations across the USA and Africa. In her book, Fajingbesi offers readers the essential keys to business success by identifying and explaining how individual money personalities–money colors–can affect overall financial success.

Publisher and distributor specializing in the development of independent authors and the growth of small presses. Greenleaf has worked on over one thousand titles including multiple New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers. Smith Publicity has promoted dozens and dozens of Greenleaf Book Group projects.

In Tose Spencer’s book, women will learn how to succeed in male-dominated business environments. Susan was an entrepreneur and business professional before many women had the courage to play in the big leagues with men. Her companies reached annual revenues of $50 million. Susan learned about football and business from her father, Leonard Tose, who owned a professional football team. She was the first and only female to hold the position as General Manager of an NFL team, The Philadelphia Eagles.

Described as the ”Oprah of entertaining,” Peggy Noe Stevens began her career working for in the hospitality industry for Hyatt Hotels Corporation before moving into event planning and experiential marketing for a major corporation. A trail blazer for women, she is the world’s first female Master Bourbon Taster, has designed women’s research and strategy studies, and has spoken to countless professional organizations on issues in the workplace as to the effective steps of strategizing careers. Her consulting company specializes in image strategy for both people and places.

Jody Foster, MD, MBA, is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Vice Chair for Clinical Operations in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Pennsylvania Hospital. She attained her MBA, with a concentration in finance, from the Wharton School.

Tim Connolly, owner of Fenwick Publishing. Fenwick is anchored by a core group of publishing professionals with specific marketing, communication, custom product manufacturing, graphic design, and interactive media experience. Beyond the core, they have a global network of best-selling authors, photographers, researchers, and global manufacturers that they pull from to assemble the right team for each job. Smith Publicity promoted POWER: How J.D. Power III Became the Auto Industry’s Adviser, Confessor, and Eyewitness to History, a Fenwick Publishing title.

Melissa Gonzalez is the founder of the Lion’esque Group, a firm of pop-up architects™ who have produced over 100 pop-up retail experiences across the U.S. Her clients include major retail brands like Marc Jacobs, Penguin Random House, Raden and J.Hilburn. In 2015 she was awarded Innovator of the Year for Pop-Up Retail by Retail Touchpoints and in 2014, her work was honored with the CLIO Image Award for experiential engagement, and was a finalist for the New York Design Award for marketing and branded experiences. Melissa is also a co-founder of THE MARKET at the Roger Smith Hotel, and an advisor to the innovative start-up Fotofwd. Gonzalez is a regular contributor to the New Daily Daily News, ABC LA Radio and is an active guest blogger on pop-up and immersive retail strategies and presents at conferences across the country. She has also been awarded the Wall Street Journal “Donor of the Day,” one the top 20 Most Inspiring People in New York City and one of the Top 100 Young CEO’s- via Our Time’s White House Initiative. Follow her online @melsstyles

Denise Dudley is a professional trainer and keynote speaker, author, business consultant, and founder and former CEO of SkillPath Seminars, the largest public training company in the world, which provides 18,000 seminars per year, and has trained over 12 million people in the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Denise holds a Ph.D. in behavioral psychology, a hospital administrator’s license, a preceptor for administrators-in-training license, and is licensed to provide training to medical professionals in the United States and Canada. She’s also a certified AIDS educator, a licensed field therapist for individuals with agoraphobia, and a regularly featured speaker on the campuses of many universities across the US, and the author of Simon and Schuster’s best-selling audio series, “Making Relationships Last.” www.DeniseMDudley.com

Dr. Linda Sharkey is a Founding Member of the Marshall Goldsmith Group, a premier executive coaching organization. Her clients include Boeing, GE, NetApp, Sodexo, Key Bank, Sanofi, and Lexis Nexis.

Deirdre B. Mendez, PhD is an intercultural consultant, trainer, and educator who has helped U.S. companies and their international partners identify and resolve culturally based conflict for nearly three decades. Since 2005, she has been affiliated with the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at The University of Texas at Austin, where she is currently Associate Director for Cultural Programs.

Shari Levitin, CEO of Levitin Group, is recognized as a global expert in sales training and corporate sales strategies in over 48 countries. She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business teaching the first ever graduate sales course, “Pitch Perfect.” In 1997, Levitin launched her own training company, Shari Levitin Group. Companies such as Hilton, Adobe, Hyatt, Sprint, Jaguar, RCI, Wyndham Worldwide, financial service groups, and countless individuals have attributed hundreds of millions of dollars of ROI to her unique Third-Level Selling.

Marks is the founder and a Managing Partner of High Rock Partners, Inc. that provides transition Leadership, Advisory & Investment teaming with middle-market leaders to navigate strategic transitions. Marks created and teaches an MBA elective titled “Financing Early Stage & Middle-Market Companies” at NC State University. He lectures at Loyola University in Chicago as part of the M&A certification program. Marks is a Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA).

Scott was born to an expatriate family in Africa and educated in England. She is the creator of Jenga, the second-bestselling game in the world, and co-founder of Oxford games. One of the worlds few professional game designers, Scott spends her time in the Oxford countryside and the African plains with her two children and her husband.

Klososky, a former CEO of three successful startup companies, specializes in looking over the horizon with how technology is changing the world. Scott’s vision and ability to see trends in emerging technologies allow him to be a thought leader who applies his skills to help organizations thrive, leaders prosper, and entire industries move forward. His love of being a technology entrepreneur assures that he continually works in the trenches of building his own companies.

Martinello “America’s Momager” and Founder & CEO of The Momager Movement. Martinello is recognized as a leading authority in leadership, life balancing, and Momager™ topics. She is founder of the Momager™ Movement, Camp Her Way, a facilitator of ‘edutainment’ programs, a sought-after speaker, and bestselling author of The Momager™ Guide: Empowering Moms To Leave A Loving Legacy.

Heshelow is a registered representative with CapWest Securities, Inc. (member NASD, SIPC, MSRB) and works daily with Tenant in Common (TIC) properties. She is president of Legacy Real Estate & Investments and is invested in several TIC properties.

Bogardus received a B.S. from the University of Tennessee and completed graduate course work in aquatic ecology. Following graduate school, he led teams of biologists studying the effects of pollutants on the ecology of many of the major rivers, lakes and estuaries in the United States.

Simon is a recognized technology expert. He consults with companies on how to optimize their use of technology and has written several books including  The Age of the Platform (Motion, 2011),  and  The Next Wave of Technologies (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). His contributions have been featured on The Globe and Mail, the American Express Open Forum, Technorati, ComputerWorld, ZDNet, abcnews.com, forbes.com, The New York Times, ReadWriteWeb, and many other sites. While not consulting, Phil speaks about emerging trends and technologies. He also writes for a number of technology-oriented media outlets. He holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University.

Richard Schmitt is an Adjunct Professor teaching retirement planning at the Edward S. Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Putting into practice his background as a numbers guy in a world looking for the means to retire, he developed 401(k) Day Trading as a better way for individuals to manage their retirement savings in an uncertain market. Lately his word has been spreading through features on Fox Business, ReutersTV, TheStreet, Business Talk Radio, KMA, and KCBS, among other media outlets.

Gorman is a 35-year veteran of the advertising and communications industry and has held senior positions at some of the world’s largest ad firms working on some of the world’s largest brands (as well as some of the smallest). In 1987, he started AGCD, which has now evolved into Brandspa.

Dr. Stark provides psychological and performance enhancement training to elite athletes at the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels. He served as the team psychologist for the University of Nebraska Cornhusker football program and for NASCAR’s premier Hendrick Motorsports Team. His expert commentary as a performance psychologist has been featured on Fox Sports, CNN, ESPN, HBO and SPEED as well as in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated. Stark has consulted with close to 30 collegiate programs, the Miami Dolphins, the St. Louis Rams and the Carolina Panthers, and hundreds of individual NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and PGA players. In the business world, Dr. Stark has advised numerous major companies.

Durand is a best-selling author and trainer of well over 100,000 individuals in sales, marketing, and business management. He outlines five key life components that must be brought into harmony and kept on track, or productivity will inevitably slow to a crawl; once this balance is achieved, less effort is needed to maintain stability and productivity increases.

Haft is a nationally recognized personal financial educator and planner who makes frequent appearances in a wide range of print, radio and television media including CNBC, Fox, Money Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, USA Today, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, Smart Money and many others. Alan was selected as a financial columnist for the prestigious American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AIPCA), the largest association of CPAs in the country.

Lockwood dedicates her life to teaching people how they can reinvent themselves with the power of determination and perseverance. Lockwood has been a repeat contributor to national outlets including Nancy Grace and The Steve Harvey Show; her work and consulting has been profiled in publications nationwide. Reinventing YOU! The 10 Best Ways to Launch Your Dream Career is her second book.

Read was born in the United Kingdom and raised in Australia. Read is currently president of SalesLabs Inc., which helps companies drive predictable and repeatable revenue growth through the application of improved process, measurement, and skills. Read splits his time between North America, Asia, and Europe.

During Winthrop H. Smith’s final decade with the firm, he was EVP of Merrill Lynch & Co., member of the Executive Management Committee, and Chairman of Merrill Lynch International. In the latter capacity, he led one of ML’s four business units with 9,000 employees, over $2 billion in revenues, and client assets of $180 billion, developing senior client relationships in over eighty countries. He is one of few people who has known every CEO at Merrill Lynch. Currently, Smith is majority owner and President of Sugarbush Resort in Vermont and director of four financial firms in the U.S. and Canada.

Suzanne Scheideker Cook worked her way up from Clerk Typist to senior management with the City of Los Angeles. Suzanne is now a consultant and works with the construction, transportation, and logistics industries. Suzanne’s passion is mentoring. She is a mentor for graduate business students at the University of Redlands’ School of Business.

Green has expertise in leadership and soft skills development, and developing academic success skills in students. He founded Leadership and Soft Skills Training and offers personalized coaching for young people and tailored presentations to schools, churches, and other organizations. He is a Student Leadership Expert of HowToLearn.com. and was recognized as a Global Presence Ambassador by Parenting 2.0 or my commitment to developing success skills in young people.

Deb Gabor was born to brand. She is the founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands. Since 2003, the Sol Marketing team has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway and RetailMeNot, and dozens of early-stage tech and digital media titans.

Through Investorpitches.com, a division of Sol Marketing, hundreds of start-up founders have benefited from Deb’s wizardry for crafting pitches that entice investors to open their wallets to the tune of up to $85 million.

John Warrillow has started and exited four companies and is a sought-after speaker and angel investor. He is a regular contributor, writing about small business, for Inc.com and WSJ.com.

Lawrence “Larry” Chester founded Process Design Consultants Inc. in 1997. An accomplished adult educator and facilitator, Larry is especially committed to the measurement of training effectiveness. In 2000 he received an award for “instructional excellence” for his work in continuing education at the University of Toronto. Jen Lawrence is a principal at Process Design Consultants Inc., with expertise in issues management, critical thinking skills, and change management. Jennifer earned an MBA in finance from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She currently blogs at The Toad Hollow Gazette and HoteldeRambouillet.com.

Dr. Alan R. Zimmerman speaks on issues of leadership, life balance, motivation, teamwork/team building, attitude, and relationships to business, government, education and health-care organizations. He is a National Speakers Association Certified Speaking Professional and has been inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame. He previously taught at Emporia State University, the University of St. Thomas, the University of Minnesota, and Mankato State University. He currently teaches at the Institute for Management Studies.

Kristen is the Principal of Kristen Rampe Consulting, elevating CPAs and CPA firm practices through consulting and workshops focused on the practice management challenges and opportunities that lead to success.

Brady Wilson is, undisputedly, the embodiment of focused energy. As co-founder of Juice Inc., Brady’s vision is to create a world where businesses pulsate with creative energy.For 20 years, he has inspired countless companies including American Express, BMO, BMO Harris, Loblaw, PHH, The Co-operators, Yum! Brands Canada and some of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies, to find the courage to:

Beyond Engagement shows how to get beyond this kind of self-defeating engagement: by managing energy rather than engagement. The book offers a chapter each to ten leadership principles based on the findings of brain science.

Stephan Aarstol is the CEO and founder of Tower Paddle Boards. After appearing on ABC’s Shark Tank and securing an investment from Mark Cuban, Stephan was featured by People Magazine as one of “Shark Tank’s Biggest Winners.”
Stephan’s company quickly became one of Mark Cuban’s best-performing investments from the popular show, and in early 2016, ABC returned to feature Tower Paddle Boards in a nationally-televised episode of Beyond the Tank.

Dennis C. Miller is a nationally recognized strategic leadership coach and motivational speaker with over 30 years of experience. The former CEO of Somerset Medical Center and Healthcare Foundation, Dennis now works with leaders of nonprofit organizations and is an expert in board governance, leadership development and succession planning. As the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Leadership, Governance and Philanthropy at Farleigh Dickinson University, Miller also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Saint Joseph’s Regional High School in Montvale, New Jersey. Miller is a regular columnist for The Nonprofit Times, a leading business publication for the nonprofit industry. He has written three previous books about nonprofit organization success: A Guide to Achieving New Heights: The Four Pillars of Successful Nonprofit Leadership; The Nonprofit Board Therapist: The Guide to Unlocking Your Organization’s True Potential; and The Power of Strategic Alignment: A Guide to Energizing Leadership and Maximizing Potential in Today’s Nonprofit Organizations. 

Raymond D. “Ray” Zinn is an inventor, entrepreneur, and the longest serving CEO of a publicly traded company in Silicon Valley, Micrel. Zinn’s philosophy on people, servant leadership, humanistic management and the ethics of corporate culture are credited with Micrel’s nearly unbroken profitability. Zinn also holds over 20 patents for semiconductor design, and is now focusing on mentoring entrepreneurs.

Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, speaker and New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of Bankable Leadership: Happy People, Bottom Line Results and the Power to Deliver Both. Her life’s work is to help organizations succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders and teams. Sample media placements.

Rosalie Chamberlain is the Owner of Denver, CO-based Rosalie Chamberlain Consulting & Coaching. A thirty-five year organizational culture and eighteen year corporate coaching veteran, she specializes in maximizing talent and productivity within organizations. She is a skilled consultant, facilitator, coach and speaker in the areas of diversity and inclusion strategy, multicultural competency, leadership development, and talent management, with expertise in managing and leveraging diverse talent. Previously, Chamberlain was a Diversity & Inclusion Manager for a national American Lawyer Top 100 law firm. She received her diversity and inclusion credentials from Cornell University’s Institute for Labor & Relations (ILR) and was certified through the International Coaching Federation.

Ira Chaleff is an author, speaker, workshop presenter and innovative thinker on the beneficial use of power between those who are leading and those who are following in any given situation.  He is the founder of the International Leadership Association’s Followership Learning Community and a member of the ILA board of directors. He is also the founder and president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates, which provides coaching, consulting, and facilitation to companies, associations, and agencies throughout the Washington, DC area. He is chairman emeritus of the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation and has provided facilitation to nearly one hundred congressional offices to improve their service to constituents. He is adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, where Courageous Followership is part of the core curriculum in its professional management training for staff. Media placements include The New York Times, Fox Business, Fortune, Miami Herald, CEO Magazine, European CEO, Chief Executive, Fast Company, and BBC.

Beth Levine, author of Jock Talk: 5 Communication Principles for Leaders as Exemplified by Legends of the Sports World, a substantive yet down-to-earth business book that entertains while it teaches leaders and aspiring leaders why and how they should shape their communications in order to be more effective and impressive. Communications coach Beth Noymer Levine is an expert in helping Fortune 500 executives, professional and world-class athletes, and other high-profile individuals effectively think about, prepare for, and deliver their messages to important audiences. The founder of SmartMouth Communications (www.smartmouthgroup.com), Levine is also the creator of the 5-star-rated iOS mobile app SmartMouth Public Speaking Toolkit (app.lk/smartmouth). She is a frequent speaker and workshop presenter at conferences and events nationwide.

Bill Sims, Jr., is President of Bill Sims Behavior Change. For more than 30 years, he has helped companies improve human performance & profitability through positive reinforcement. Bill’s book Green Beans & Ice Cream: The Remarkable Power of Positive Reinforcement is available at www.greenbeanleadership.com, amazon.com, audble.com, and other leading book sellers.