School for Startups Radio

Glen Dunzweiler – Filmmaker/producer, Public Speaker and Homelessness Advocate and Author of The Moralists The answer is what can I do? And you don’t have to do everything, but what can I do to make the people around me better? Glen Dunzweiler is a filmmaker/producer, public speaker, and video coach. His documentary yHomeless? is available on Amazon Prime and his new book, A Degree In Homelessness? Entrepreneurial Skills For Students can be found on Amazon Books! glendunzweiler.com Glen wrote the book for students who only know how to be successful in school. He currently lives in Los Angeles and works to make his creative projects sustainable. In 2015, he moved from a professorship at CSU San Bernardino to Los Angeles to focus on the business side of entertainment. He found distribution for yHomeless? and began work on his second film, a biopic titled Deuce -about a former student getting himself out of The South Side of Chicago. In addition to filmmaking and book authoring, Dunzweiler speaks publicly about insights gained from working with the homeless and with community leaders; strategies for navigating the differences between academic and business success for students; and tips for smoother presentations for corporate audiences. Charlie Curson – CEO and Founder of Mandarin Associates & Author of Be More Strategic: 12 essential practices to build the life and career Planning is sequencing actions. It feels safe. Strategy is about choices. Charlie Curson is the Founder and CEO of Mandarin Associates, a strategic advisor, investor, facilitator, and accredited leadership coach with more than 25 years of experience helping organizations think and act more strategically. He has worked with more than 250 organizations across over 30 industries, partnering with global companies such as Visa, McDonald’s, Unilever, Experian, Volkswagen Group, L’Oréal, and Barclays, as well as ambitious start ups. Through this work he has helped design and deliver bold growth strategies, innovation programs, and leadership development initiatives that enable organizations and leaders to perform at a higher level in complex and rapidly changing environments. Curson has spent much of his career helping leaders build stronger strategic capability. After early experience in engineering and top tier consulting, he found his calling working with a world class strategy team in London that helped organizations design and implement ambitious strategic direction. Over time, clients increasingly asked not only for strategic guidance but also for help building the capability within their own teams. For more than fifteen years he has coached leaders around the world to develop stronger strategic thinking and decision making skills, emphasizing that strategy should not be confined to boardrooms or MBA programs but should be a practical skill available to anyone seeking to lead more effectively. Known for blending research based frameworks with real world application, Curson integrates cutting edge thinking with practical tools that help leaders and teams navigate uncertainty, clarify direction, and create momentum. His work focuses on helping people become more conscious, creative, and decisive in their leadership and professional lives. Curson is also the author of the forthcoming book Be More Strategic: 12 Essential Practices to Build the Life and Career You Want, which explores how individuals can develop the mindset and habits required to think strategically and succeed in today’s complex world.

Joel Hilchey – Keynote Speaker, Author, “Fun-at-Work” Expert and Author of The 6-and-a-half Habits of Highly Defective Bosses: Serious Lessons for Accidental Managers When you need a creative solution, separate the idea generation process from your decision process. Joel Hilchey is an ideas guy. His gift seems to stem from a strange combination of observation, insight, and blatant disregard for conventional thinking. He’s also a juggler (literally and figuratively). In addition to leading the Beanstalk Creative team, he maintains a busy schedule as a keynote speaker on workplace culture, creating unforgettable spectacles on stage. He’s the father of 3 kids, 2 of whom co-habitated a uterus, and he attempts to be a good husband. Joel has authored 4 books – most recently The 6-and-a-half Habits of Highly Defective Bosses – Serious Lessons for Accidental Managers, and he taught engineering for over a decade at McMaster University, where he was named one of the Top 150 Alumni. He’s a seasoned barbershop quartet singer, he formerly chaired the board of the world-renowned Hamilton Children’s Choir, and he’s a semi-competitive joggler (that’s right… juggling whilst jogging). Chris Clearfield – Leadership Strategist & Author of The High-Altitude Entrepreneur: A Framework for Scaling Smarter, Leading Better, and Living Freer The stuff that helped your business grow at the beginning, at some point, that really starts to hold you and your company back. Chris Clearfield is a leadership strategist, author, and Harvard-trained scientist who works with high-performing entrepreneurs to help them scale without becoming the bottleneck in their own business. He has coached founders and executives at SMEs and large companies, including Netflix, Microsoft, Etsy, and ExxonMobil, helping leaders navigate complexity, redesign how decisions get made, and build teams that operate with clarity, ease and ownership. He is the co-author of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It, winner of the National Business Book Award and the Thinkers50 Strategy Award. His new book is The High-Altitude Entrepreneur. Learn more at highaltitudebook.com.

Jeff Galloway – U.S. Olympian, Best-Selling Author, Race Director, President at Jeff Galloway Productions and Fitness Expert If you find something that you can do that will help others improve the quality of their lives, then it will take on a life of its own. Jeff Galloway was a U.S. Olympian, best selling author, race director, and internationally respected fitness expert whose influence on the running community spanned more than five decades. A member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team in the 10,000 meters, Galloway competed among the top distance runners of his era before dedicating his life to helping others discover the benefits of running and lifelong fitness. Through his company, Jeff Galloway Productions, he created training programs, seminars, and events that guided runners of all ages and abilities, inspiring hundreds of thousands of people to pursue healthier and more active lives. Jeff Galloway passed away on February 25, 2026, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the world of running and personal fitness. Galloway was widely known as the inventor of the Run Walk Run training method, a revolutionary approach that allows runners to alternate running and walking intervals to improve endurance, reduce fatigue, and lower the risk of injury. The method opened the door for countless people who once believed running was beyond their reach. He was also the author of 19 books about running, walking, and fat burning exercise, including The Run Walk Run Method, the title book behind his widely adopted training philosophy. Through his books, coaching, and encouragement, Jeff Galloway helped transform the sport of running into a welcoming community where anyone could participate, and his impact will continue to motivate runners for generations to come. Faisal Hoque – #1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Selling Author, Founder and Chair at NextChapter, Founder and Managing Director at Shadoka, Author of Globee Awards winning 2022 Publication of the Year for Best Business Book called Lift: Fostering the Leader in You Amid Revolutionary Global Change Unless you know and connect with yourself and connect with other people, you cannot certainly connect with your creation and the creation that actually creates value. Faisal Hoque is an accomplished entrepreneur, noted thought leader, technology innovator, advisor to CEOs, BODs, and the US federal government, and an author with more than 25 years of cross-industry success. He is the founder of SHADOKA, NextChapter, and other companies. They focus on enabling sustainable and transformational changes. He also serves as a strategic partner and a thought leader for CACI, and works extensively with US Federal Agencies. CACI is a $6 billion public company who plays a vital role in US national security. He is a 3 times winning Founder and CEO of Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ awards. At the age of only 14, he began what would be the first of many businesses; cobbling together stereo components to sell from his father’s home in Dhaka, Bangladesh in order to save the money he would need to support his plan to study in the United States. He built his first commercial software product at the age of 19 while studying at the University of Minnesota, and went on to hold management positions in Pitney Bowes and then Dun and Bradstreet. In 1991, Pitney Bowes recruited him to join one of their R&D groups before he finished his undergraduate degree. As a serial entrepreneur, he has raised venture capital from angels, strategic partners, and institutional investors to fund his innovative business-to-business startups. Over the decades, his companies innovated products and solutions that: provided middleware software for complex, secure transaction processing; created industry’s first set of re-usable software components for integrated B2B e-commerce; and pioneered comprehensive business value management frameworks and platforms. As a thought leader, he has authored a...

Steve Ramona – Host of Doing Business With A Servant’s Heart You got to step into every interaction that you have in our business. For your personal life, really doesn’t matter how you go really uplift them. What value can you bring to somebody? Steve Ramona is the host of Doing Business With A Servant’s Heart – Steve’s guests are Top Business Leaders who will get great resources and tips in the Podcast to help the audience grow their personal and professional lives. Steve Ramona is a unique super-connector/ Human SEO specializing in building impactful partnerships through personalized introductions. With a remarkable portfolio involving $1 billion in projects and over $125 million in partner deals, showcasing the incredible value he brings to every partnership. Steve is dedicated to facilitating connections that yield results. His introductions are not just emails; they include tailored video explanations that add a personal touch and ensure each connection is meaningful. Showcasing the incredible value he brings to every partnership. In addition to his partnership work, Steve hosts the popular podcast, *Doing Business with a Servant’s Heart* podcast, which reaches an audience of over 50,000 people per episode and continues to grow! He also produces the TV show *Together We Serve*, boasting a remarkable monthly audience of 1.2 million viewers. Featuring inspiring CEOs, founders, presidents, and entrepreneurs with incredible stories, Steve uses his platforms to forge powerful collaborations and partnerships. Join Steve on his mission to create meaningful connections and foster growth through service! Patrick Grimes – CEO and Founder of Passive Investing Mastery Nobody was telling me anything about. Here’s the 50 different ways you can invest into alternative investments that don’t have the same market fundamentals and aren’t driven by the same factors as real estate in the stock market and and by the way, they’ll build real stability, real security in your financial portfolio. Patrick Grimes, the CEO and founder of Passive Investing Mastery, has helped hundreds of successful professionals reach their financial goals through alternative investment options with tax-advantaged cash flow, appreciation, and limited exposure to market volatility and inflation. He has been active in investments since 2006, including purchasing land and distressed assets, renovating, and stabilizing for cash flow. Patrick’s private equity firm, Invest On Main Street has acquire thousands of apartment units and is diversified into natural gas and oil portfolios across five states. He is a frequent speaker on podcasts and at conferences. He writes on alternative investing and coauthored the best-selling book Persistence, Pivots and Game Changers. Previously, Patrick designed and built manufacturing automation and robotic systems in the medical device, EV, and aerospace industries. Patrick holds a BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA and MS in engineering.

MichaelAaron Flicker – Founder/CEO of XenoPsi and Author of Hacking the Human Mind: The behavioral science secrets behind 17 of the world’s best brands The power of words are very commonly underestimated by entrepreneurs, by marketers. MichaelAaron Flicker is an American entrepreneur and behavioral science strategist who serves as the founder and chief executive officer of XenoPsi Ventures, a brand incubator that provides financial, marketing, and intellectual capital to a diverse portfolio of companies. He started XenoPsi when he was just a young teenager and has grown it into one of America’s fastest-growing private firms, leading nine operating companies and consulting with more than 100 brands across sectors. MichaelAaron is co-author of Hacking the Human Mind: The behavioral science secrets behind 17 of the world’s best brands, a book that reveals how top companies use behavioral science to drive lasting growth. A recognized thought leader at the intersection of business and marketing, he founded the Consumer Behavior Lab to help brands apply behavioral science principles, and he co-hosts the Behavioral Science for Brands podcast exploring the latest insights in human decision making. His work has been featured in Fast Company and other industry publications, and he has been honored as one of NJBIZ’s “40 Under 40.” He holds degrees in political science and philosophy from Boston College and lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children. Dean Foster – International Business Expert and Author of Business Beyond Borders: Stories, Tales and Lessons Learned from Working in 100 Cultures Around the World You can’t change the culture that you’re choosing to work with. That’s not your job, and it’s a long process to try to do that, but you can manage it and manage it for success. Dean is the founder of DFA Intercultural Global Solutions ,and founder and former Worldwide Director of Berlitz Cross-Cultural. Based in New York City, Dean has played a central role in the development of the field of cross-cultural training and consulting. Dean has worked with most major Fortune 500 companies, national governments and NGOs (the United Nations and World Trade Institutes, among others), and as guest lecturer and faculty for premier educational institutions, including Harvard Business School, Columbia University School of Business, New York University, and Darden Business School. His work has taken him to more than 100 countries. He is the host on CNN of the nationwide “Doing Business in… ” series; a frequent guest commentator on culture, global work and social issues for CNN, CNBC, the BBC and other radio and TV shows; and has been interviewed in Newsweek, USA Today, New York Times, and elsewhere. He is the creator and host of the more than irreverent podcast, “Oops, Your Culture’s Showing!” Dean is a frequent presenter at major international conferences related to global work and cultural issues. He has been an active member of and speaker at the annual international conferences of Worldwide ERC©, the National Foreign Trade Council, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the International Institute for Human Resources (IIHR), and other organizations. In 2012 Dean was inducted into Worldwide ERC’s prestigious “Hall of Leaders”; in 2013 he received the Forum for Expatriate Management’s acclaimed Lifetime Achievement Award. Dean has written many articles and published six books, including “Bargaining Across Borders“, voted as one of the top ten business books of the year by the American Library Association. As a contributing editor with National Geographic, he wrote the monthly “CultureWise” column appearing in National Geographic Traveler Magazine. His latest book, “BUSINESS BEYOND BORDERS: Stories, Tales and Lessons Learned from Working in 100 Cultures Around the World” was published, November 2025. Dean is on the faculty of American University’s Intercultural Management Institute in Washington, DC. He...

Kaelyn Query – Award-winning Event Producer and Author of So Worth It! We actually make more money doing less events because we’re spending more time on each these clients then become repeat clients. A lot of our corporate clients were on retainer for them, and so we actually do better with less events. What a wild concept, right? Kaelyn Query Caldwell is an award-winning event producer, small business owner, serial entrepreneur, author of So Worth It!, consultant, professor, and public speaker based in Lexington, Kentucky whose work spans clients across the United States and beyond. She began her career in events and hospitality during high school and turned her passion into a professional venture in 2013, eventually founding multiple successful companies including Kentucky Event Company, LexEffect Venues, and My Wedding Planner while producing countless events nationally and internationally. Kaelyn hosts the Big Ideas Small Business podcast and serves as the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Transylvania University, where she mentors and teaches aspiring business leaders. Her entrepreneurial achievements have earned her numerous honors such as Entrepreneur of the Year and Top Event Planner recognitions, and she is active in her community through leadership and board roles. When she is not creating experiences or writing, Kaelyn enjoys travel, cooking, and time with her wife and son. Rusty Shelton – Founder of Zilker Media and Co-Author of “The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact Not Ego“ The way you punch above your weight class today is not to lead as a company with something to sell. Instead, it’s to lead as a thought leader with something to teach. Rusty Shelton is the Founder of Zilker Media and Co-Author of “The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact Not Ego“. Rusty Shelton first spoke at Harvard on the changing world of marketing and PR at the age of 23. He is a bestselling author, dynamic keynote speaker and successful entrepreneur who has focused his career on helping leaders build thought leadership focused on impact, not ego, writing three acclaimed books and speaking around the world to a variety of audiences, from YPO to SXSW Interactive to Forbes. He is Chairman of Zilker Media, an award-winning agency based in Austin, TX that builds people-driven brands and Senior Marketing Strategist at Forbes Books. Rusty’s keynotes blend humor and targeted examples to challenge assumptions about personal branding, showing audiences how to build authentic thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. He’s known for a mix of story-telling, candor and practical, put-it-into-action-next-week guidance – showing leaders how to make an impact and build trust in an increasingly skeptical world – and have a lot of fun along the way. He has shared the stage with Steve Forbes and Alan Mulally, spoken for YPO, EO, SXSW Interactive, the University of Texas, numerous Fortune 1000 companies and served on the faculty at more than 20 Harvard Medical School CME courses. He is the co-author (alongside Adam Witty) of The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego (ForbesBooks, 2023), which features a foreword from David Meerman Scott, Authority Marketing: How to Leverage 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant (ForbesBooks, 2018), which features a foreword from Steve Forbes, and co-author (alongside Barbara Cave Henricks) of Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset (Berrett-Koehler, 2016). An avid Texas Longhorns fan, he sits on the University of Texas Texas Exes PR Committee and is a proud member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in Austin, where he serves on the board. He lives just west of Austin in Spicewood with his wife, Paige and three children (Luke, Brady & Sadie) and their very rowdy black lab, Charlie. Rusty loves to play golf, fish, coach his sons’ sports teams and is the QB...

Will Cooper – AKA Doc Holiday – Founder of Stock Market Ping Pong We’re not looking for miracles. We’re not looking for home runs. We’re looking for safe, simple, repeatable, profitable trades. Will Cooper is a serial entrepreneur turned professional day trader with more than 15 years of experience building companies in the Oil and Gas industry. During that time, he founded and helped develop seven start ups that collectively generated more than $500 million in gross revenue. When the COVID pandemic disrupted the energy sector, Will shifted his focus to the financial markets, transforming a long standing personal interest into a full time profession. Over the next two years, he developed a proprietary trading protocol and algorithm designed to identify repeatable opportunities using a disciplined, rules based approach. Today, nearly six years into his trading career, Will trades independently from his laptop, applying the same structured thinking that guided his success as an entrepreneur. He now shares his experience and methodology with others, helping traders understand the principles of consistency, discipline, and process that drive long term performance in the markets. Brian Will – Serial Entrepreneur and Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author of The Dropout Multi-Millionaire: 37 Business Lessons on How to Succeed in Business With No Money, No Education and No Clue I had always build businesses that don’t require me to actually be in them and working them. Brian Will is a serial entrepreneur who has created or co-created seven very successful companies in four different industries over the last thirty-five years. These companies were worth over a half a billion dollars at their peak. His first business was a 10-year stint in the landscaping industry that he started when he was twenty years old. This was followed by three online internet start-up companies during the dot.com boom of the late nineties and early 2000s. Today, Brian owns a growing chain of restaurants in the Atlanta area as well as an Insurance and Technology company based on Denver and a residential and commercial Real Estate business in Georgia and Florida. He also serves on city council in his hometown of Alpharetta, Georgia. Brian is an industry leading Business and Sales Management Consultant to companies from startups to fortune 500. During the course of this career Brian has done multiple turn around projects and helped those organizations drive billions of dollars in sales. He now owns a growing chain of restaurants in the Atlanta area, an Insurance and Technology company in Denver and a residential and commercial Real Estate business in Georgia and Florida.

Brent Bowers – Land Coach at The Land Sharks There’s this special thing about American land that people just want to own it. Brent Bowers is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, and educator who serves as the CEO of Zech Buys Houses LLC and a Land Coach at The Land Sharks, where he helps investors build passive income through buying and selling vacant land. A former U.S. Army officer with more than eight years of service, Brent began investing in real estate in 2007 with the goal of creating financial stability and spending more time with his family. Over time, he shifted his focus from traditional residential investing to land investing, recognizing its simplicity, scalability, and ability to generate recurring income without the challenges of tenants or property maintenance. As the president of Zech Buys Houses LLC, he has built a portfolio of land and real estate investments and developed systems that generate consistent monthly income. Through The Land Sharks, Brent now mentors and trains investors on his proven strategies for finding, acquiring, and reselling vacant land, helping others create reliable cash flow and long term wealth through land investing. Josh Morgerman – Founder of iCyclone People ask me this all the time. They’re like, what’s wrong with you? And all I can say is, listen, honestly, I was born this way. Founded by storm chaser and adrenaline junkie Josh Morgerman, iCyclone is the brand name under which he chases hurricanes and collaborates with others on weather-related projects. The iCyclone team is a loosely-affiliated, cross-functional club of chasers, researchers, and meteorologists unified by their shared passion for Earth’s mightiest spectacle: the hurricane. The iCyclone mission has always been to penetrate, experience, and document the inner cores of hurricanes as they thrust ashore—via video, data collection, and blogging. iCyclone’s original chase turf was exclusively the USA. That changed in 2007, when Josh Morgerman singlehandedly hunted ferocious Category-5 Hurricane Dean on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula—the only chaser to do so. This splashy debut launched a string of solo, daredevil Mexican chases that have established Morgerman as the most prolific chaser of Mexican hurricanes and a specialist in this region. Since 2007, he’s logged a whopping eight successful hurricane chases in Mexico, on both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and in doing so has captured rare video footage and useful data for the USA’s National Hurricane Center. In 2013, when the Atlantic failed to produce any chaseable hurricanes, Morgerman and the iCyclone team expanded their focus to East Asia, chasing and penetrating the inner cores of an incredible four typhoons in just over a month, including Category-5 Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines. Recent high-profile chases include devastating Hurricane Odile in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in 2014; Typhoon Goni in Ishigaki-jima, Japan, in 2015; Typhoon Dujuan in Su’ao, Taiwan, in 2015; and the incredible Category-5 Hurricane Patricia in Jalisco, Mexico, in 2015. Salima Lin – Managing Partner, Strategy, M&A, Transformation, and Thought Leadership at IBM Consulting Humans as humans, those who have AI will replace those who don’t use it. Salima Lin has more than 25 years of management consulting and leadership experience in developing and executing business and operating strategies, driving transformation, developing new business models and operationalizing process improvement. During her career, she has advised numerous Fortune 500 companies, primarily in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices, managed care, and healthcare delivery. Her experience spans strategy development in the Americas, with strategy and transformation across industries and domains for IBM’s consulting business globally. She has a master’s degree in health policy and administration from Harvard, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and biology from...

Vance Morris – Former Area Food & Beverage Manager at Walt Disney World and President & Chief Experience Officer of Deliver Service Now institute Your marketing is designed to do two things, attract the people you want and repel the people you don’t want. Vance Morris is a customer experience strategist, entrepreneur, speaker, and the President and Chief Experience Officer of the Deliver Service Now Institute. He is widely recognized for helping businesses transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary customer experiences that drive loyalty, referrals, and long-term profitability. Vance spent more than a decade as a senior leader at Walt Disney World, where he served as an Area Food and Beverage Manager and helped oversee operations in one of the world’s most respected service organizations. During his time with Disney, he learned firsthand the systems and operational discipline behind creating memorable guest experiences, building customer loyalty, and delivering consistent service excellence at scale. Following his Disney career, Vance became an entrepreneur and successfully built and operated multiple home service businesses. Drawing on his Disney experience and real-world ownership perspective, he founded the Deliver Service Now Institute in 2013 to help business owners escape price competition and instead compete on customer experience and perceived value. Through his proprietary XPerience Service System, he has helped more than 1,100 businesses improve customer retention, increase profitability, and create lasting client relationships. Today, Vance works with entrepreneurs, service professionals, and organizations across industries through consulting, coaching, speaking, and immersive training programs. His work focuses on helping companies create customers for life by delivering intentional, memorable experiences at every stage of the customer journey. Vance Morris is considered one of the leading voices in applying Disney-style service principles to small and mid-sized businesses, showing owners how to turn service into a competitive advantage and a powerful driver of growth. George Pesansky – Forbes Councils Contributor at Forbes Coaches Council and Author of Superperformance: 8 Strategies to Reach Full Potential for Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization When we become the managers of our own improvement factory, we can really hold ourselves to a whole different level of accountability. George Pesansky is an operational excellence expert, executive coach, author, and performance strategist with more than three decades of experience helping individuals and organizations achieve consistent, high-level results. He is widely recognized for his work in leadership development, process improvement, and building repeatable systems that enable sustainable peak performance. Throughout his career, George has worked extensively with Fortune 500 organizations, developing innovative methodologies that streamline operations, eliminate ambiguity, and create cultures of clarity and accountability. He has trained and supported more than 10,000 professionals in Six Sigma, Lean, and World Class Manufacturing principles, helping organizations improve efficiency, strengthen leadership capability, and drive measurable business outcomes. George is also the founder of Capacity2Care, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping high-performing professionals contribute their expertise to charitable organizations, creating meaningful operational and social impact. In addition to his coaching and consulting work, he is the author of Superperformance, a book that teaches leaders and professionals how to identify, replicate, and sustain their highest levels of performance by turning best practices into standard practices. Today, George works with executives, teams, and organizations around the world through coaching, speaking, and training programs, helping them unlock potential, improve performance, and build systems that produce...

Tom Hardin – Founder of Tipper X The hardest part is just to accept responsibility and own it. And actually, the hardest part also is to forgive yourself. I mean, that’s still what I go through today. Sometimes it’s just sort of that stuff. Sort of that self forgiveness, because we can be, you know, our internal voices of our thought can be, can be pretty, pretty negative at times. Tom Hardin is the founder of Tipper X and a globally recognized keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and advisor specializing in ethics, compliance, and culture risk. Early in his career, he worked as a financial analyst in New York City, where he became involved in insider trading and later cooperated with federal authorities as an undercover informant in one of the largest insider trading investigations in Wall Street history. Operating under the codename “Tipper X,” his cooperation helped federal investigators build cases against major financial figures and exposed widespread ethical failures within the hedge fund industry. Today, Hardin has transformed his experience into a platform for education and prevention. Through Tipper X, he delivers keynote presentations, compliance training, and advisory services to corporations, financial institutions, and universities around the world. His work focuses on helping organizations understand the psychological and cultural factors that lead to ethical breakdowns, and how to build stronger ethical decision making systems. He is also the author of Wired on Wall Street, which shares his firsthand account of financial misconduct, cooperation with federal authorities, and his personal journey toward accountability and redemption. Brendan Keegan – CEO of Merchants Fleet and Author of The FUD Factor: Overcoming Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt to Achieve the Impossible – Overcoming Fear Leaders are not born. They’re made. And the first thing that really has to happen is someone just needs to make a conscious decision that they want to be a leader. Some people come to that decision on their own. Others, somebody sees it in them and taps into their leadership. But leadership has nothing to do with title. It has to do with doing little extra. Picking up the basketballs. Raising your hand before you even know what the project is. Informally, you’re putting yourself into a leadership role, and that’s really powerful. Brendan Keegan is chairman, CEO and president of the board for Merchants Fleet, the fastest-growing fleet technology company in North America. Brendan is the creator of the bFEARLESS movement. He also is the author of three books, including his newest, The FUD Factor: Overcoming Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt to Achieve the Impossible. Keegan has contributed more than 200 articles to Fast Company, Inc. Media, Entrepreneur, Newsweek, Fox Business and Harvard Business Review. During Keegan’s time at Merchants Fleet, the company has been named a two-time Inc 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Company, Deloitte Best Managed Company and a Fast Company Top 10 Most Innovative Company. Brendan P. Keegan has spent a lifetime facing down fear, uncertainty and doubt in order to make his visions a reality. And for the hundreds of thousands of people who have been inspired by his revolutionary approach to leadership, he offers an unmatched mix of creativity, generosity, wisdom and tenacious commitment to making a positive impact on the world. An award-winning six-time president and chief executive officer, Brendan is well-known in the business world for his ability to envision outcomes that seem audacious, or even impossible — until he makes them a reality. As the current Chairman, CEO & President of the Board for Merchants Fleet, the fastest-growing fleet technology company in North America, he has created a culture of innovation that empowers employees, partners and investors to transform the industry. Brendan has dedicated himself to cracking his own code and building simple, repeatable systems that anyone can use to live and...

Maria Martinez – Human Potential Activator, Wealth Consciousness Activator, Multi-Dimensional Healer If you want to become a millionaire, embody the millionaire mindset, embody the millionaire habits, embody the millionaire behavior. Maria Martinez’s extensive expertise as a Human Potential Activator, Wealth Consciousness Activator, Multi-Dimensional Healer, Energy Alchemist, and Business Success Coach seamlessly integrates Functional Medicine practices to enhance her existing services. Through Functional Medicine principles, Maria delve deeper into identifying the root causes of her clients’ challenges and stagnation. Functional Medicine emphasizes understanding the interconnectedness of various aspects of health, including physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Through this approach, Maria helps her clients uncover underlying imbalances contributing to their struggles and limiting beliefs. Utilizing Functional Medicine tools, Maria assist her clients in exploring how their words, thoughts, choices, and actions influence their reality. By empowering clients to recognize and address these influences, Maria supports them in healing themselves, releasing what no longer serves their highest good, and aligning with their Divine Path. Furthermore, Maria’s profound connection with source and higher-dimensional light beings enables her to serve as a conduit for healing energy and intuitive insights. Integrating Functional Medicine concepts into her healing processes allows Maria to offer comprehensive support for her clients’ physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation. In essence, incorporating Functional Medicine principles into her existing services, Maria deepens her impact, facilitate profound healing and transformation, and empower her clients to live joyfully, abundantly, and fulfilled lives aligned with their true potential. Steve Berry – NY Times Best Selling Author of The Atlas Maneuver (Cotton Malone Book 18) Just you got to write a good book. You got to work hard. You got to hang with it. You got to stay to it and just keep plowing along. If you get rejected, you write another book, and you just keep going until you find a story that they like. And it’s really a game of perseverance. I tell people all the time. I may not know anything about writing, but I consider myself a world class expert on rejection. Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of sixteen Cotton Malone adventures, five stand-alone thrillers, and several works of short fiction. His books have been translated into 41 languages with 25,000,000 copies in 52 countries. They consistently appear in the top echelon of The New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller lists. Somewhere in the world, every thirty seconds, a Steve Berry book is sold. History lies at the heart of every Steve Berry novel. It’s his passion, one he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, which led them to create History Matters, a foundation dedicated to historic preservation. Since 2009 Steve and Elizabeth have crossed the country to save endangered historic treasures, raising money via lectures, receptions, galas, luncheons, dinners, and their popular writers’ workshops. To date, 3,500 students have attended those workshops, with over $1.5 million dollars raised. Steve’s devotion to historic preservation was recognized by the American Library Association, which named Steve its spokesperson for National Preservation Week. Among his other honors are the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award; the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award given by Poets & Writers; the Anne Frank Human Writes Award; and the Silver Bullet, bestowed by International Thriller Writers for his philanthropic work. He has been chosen both the Florida and Georgia Writer of the Year. He’s also an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board. In 2010, an NPR survey named The Templar Legacy one of the top 100 thrillers ever written. Steve was born...

Henry Yoshida – CEO & Co-Founder of Rocket Dollar The road to building that business is hard, and we’re talking about kind of the high points. People only read about those, but there are many, many more low points. So this little one is like a mini dopamine hit that just kind of reassures you that, hey, someone took a chance, someone bought your product, someone paid you money. Henry Yoshida Henry Yoshida is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rocket Dollar, a fintech company based in Austin, Texas that enables individuals to take control of their retirement savings by investing in alternative assets such as real estate, startups, cryptocurrency, and private equity through self-directed retirement accounts. He founded Rocket Dollar in 2018 with the mission of making retirement investing more flexible and accessible, helping investors move beyond traditional stock and bond portfolios and gain broader diversification opportunities. Yoshida is a seasoned entrepreneur and financial expert with more than two decades of experience in wealth management, retirement planning, and fintech innovation. Prior to Rocket Dollar, he co-founded Honest Dollar, a venture-backed robo-advisor retirement platform that was acquired by Goldman Sachs and later integrated into Marcus Invest. He also founded MY Group, an investment advisory firm managing billions in assets that was later acquired by CAPTRUST, and he previously served as a Vice President at Merrill Lynch, where he built extensive expertise in retirement and investment strategies. A Certified Financial Planner and recognized leader in the fintech and retirement industry, Yoshida has helped bring innovative investment products and platforms to market throughout his career. He holds a degree from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Cornell University, and he continues to advocate for empowering individuals to diversify their portfolios and gain greater control over their financial futures through modern retirement investing solutions. John Baldoni – Top 10 Thought Leader and Author of Grace Under Pressure: Leading Through Change and Crisis View people with an open heart, give them the benefit of the doubt. And sometimes, you know that’s going to be tested, but if you do that, I want to say that better things will happen. Some people will disappoint you, of course, but when you act that way, people will remember you as, you know, Jim. He acted with an open heart. He viewed people, he treated people with dignity. He gave them the respect they deserve. John Baldoni John Baldoni is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and author of 16 books that have been translated into ten languages. He is also ranked globally as a top ten leadership coach. John’s thought leadership is reflected in his writing as well as his choice of media: columns, videos and books. John also integrates piano improvisations into his keynotes which he illustrates with his still life photos. John is also the host of LinkedIn Live’s GRACE under pressure interview series, a platform that has enabled him to interview more a hundred global business, academic and thought leaders and doers. John’s books include Grace Under Pressure: Leading Through Change and Crisis; Grace Notes: Leading in an Upside-Down World; GRACE: A Leader’s Guide to a Better Us; MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership; Lead with Purpose; Lead Your Boss and The Leader’s Pocket Guide. In 2022, Thinkers 360 named John a Top 10 Thought Leader for both Leadership and Management. Also in 2022, Global Gurus ranked John a Top 20 global leadership expert, a list he has been on since 2007. In 2021, the International Federation of Learning and Development named John a World-Class Mentor and named him to its Hall of Fame. In 2018 Inc.com named John a Top 100 speaker and Trust Across America honored John with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Trust. In 2014 Inc.com listed John as a Top 50 leadership expert. John is also a member of the renowned...

Chris Hallberg – President & Founder of GoExpand So it was great just to get outside my comfort zone, be stretched, do things I didn’t think I could do, overcome adversity again and again and again and still find a way to win. So like military, people are resilient, and that’s why they make great leaders in business. Chris Hallberg, known as the “Business Sergeant”, is a top-ranked leadership expert, military veteran, and serial entrepreneur who transforms good companies into great ones, fast. Ranked #9 on Inc. Magazine’s Top 50 Leadership & Management Experts – ahead of Simon Sinek – Chris blends battlefield-tested leadership with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to deliver proven results. He scaled and sold a startup during the Great Recession at an 8× multiple, built royalty-generating sales systems, and became Colorado’s first EOS Implementer, guiding 100+ teams to achieve 90%+ employee engagement rates and 100+ Best Places to Work awards. Today, he co-builds a $5M AI-driven EOS platform while coaching billion-dollar contractors, national chains, and franchises with a remarkable 85% success rate. With his no-nonsense, high-energy style, Chris simplifies strategy, strengthens culture, and shows leaders how to drive 30%+ EBIT on predictable systems. John Catsimatidis – CEO of The Red Apple Group and the Author of How Far Do You Want to Go?: Lessons from a Common-Sense Billionaire I hate doing nothing. I hate to have a day without accomplishment. I try to accomplish something every day. And how do I relax? Maybe on a Saturday night or Sunday night, we watch these new series on television, like succession, or like Tulsa. And I know when we watched succession last week, we were up to two o’clock in the morning watching it, when finally we said, enough is enough. Billionaire entrepreneur John Catsimatidis, owner and CEO of the Red Apple Group, reveals how his instincts and common sense have propelled him to massive business success in this detailed account of an incredible rags-to-riches story. Born on the small Greek island of Nisyros, John Catsimatidis immigrated to the States with his family and quickly became a true New Yorker, raised in Harlem. He went to school by day and worked in a small grocery store by night to help his parents pay the bills until, just eight credits short of graduating from New York University, he opted to work in the grocery business full-time. Today, that grocery business has become the Red Apple Group, a conglomerate with interests in energy, real estate, aviation, baseball, entertainment, and media, including the iconic radio station WABC, where John hosts leading figures in government, politics, business, and economics. As Catsimatidis has discovered, the American Dream doesn’t come with an instruction manual—or even a sign to let you know when you’ve arrived at the finish line. How Far Do You Want to Go? tells Catsimatidis’s dynamic story, from his beginnings in the grocery business to entering the political arena, including a New York City mayoral campaign. He’s tried his hand at nearly everything, but he’s far from finished with his adventures. Now, he offers readers a glimpse into the wisdom he’s gained—and the excitement he has for what the future holds in store.

Ravi Rajani – International Keynote Speaker and Author of Relationship Currency: Five Communication Habits For Limitless Influence and Business Success Since the beginning of time, the one currency that has always mattered in any area of our life is relationships. Ravi Rajani is an international keynote speaker, communication expert, transformational coach, and LinkedIn Learning instructor known for helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and sales teams communicate with influence and build trusted relationships that drive growth. He has partnered with major organizations such as Oracle NetSuite, T-Mobile, and Sherwin-Williams, teaching professionals how to master effective communication and create meaningful business connections. Rajani is the author of Relationship Currency: Five Communication Habits for Limitless Influence and Business Success, a book that equips readers with practical strategies to build trust, spark influence, and communicate with clarity, charisma, and confidence. Recognized as a leading thought leader on storytelling and communication, he has trained tens of thousands of professionals through his courses on conscious and charismatic communication. His career reflects a lifelong focus on the art of communication, shaped by early experiences in dance and theatre and later strengthened through roles in investment banking and technology sales leadership. Today, Rajani delivers keynote speeches, workshops, and coaching programs designed to help audiences unlock human connection, cultivate trust, and inspire action through influential storytelling. Isobel Rimmer – Owner and CEO of Masterclass Training, Bestselling Author, & a Award-Winning Speaker The purpose of a visual aid is not for the speaker to have their notes or their bullets and to know what they’re going to say next. It’s to help the audience understand what you’re saying. Isobel Rimmer is the Founder, CEO, and Lead Trainer at Masterclass Training, an international leadership and business development consultancy that delivers training programmes through a global team of consultants and facilitators. She is also a speaker, educator, executive coach, and accredited facilitator for leadership frameworks such as The Leadership Challenge and The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. A graduate of the University of Surrey, Rimmer began her career working in France before joining Digital Equipment on its fast track graduate programme. With more than 25 years as a business leader, coach, and mentor, she has designed award winning leadership programmes for organizations including Hertz, PwC, Accenture, and IBM, helping leaders communicate effectively and deliver with impact. Rimmer is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Natural Business Development and Present with Presence, books focused on unlocking employee potential, strengthening communication, and driving revenue growth. Known for her pragmatic, results driven approach, she works with both private and public sector clients and regularly speaks at conferences and industry events across the UK, Europe, and the United States.

Allison Taylor – CEO & Co-Founder of Discerna.ai, CEO & Founder of Thought Marketing and Author of Power Up Product Management Sometimes we’re reluctant entrepreneurs. Sometimes we don’t know we’re going to be an entrepreneur until later. Allison Taylor is a Silicon Valley technology go-to-market strategist and entrepreneur who has brought over 20 enterprise software solutions and services to market across 35 countries, representing over $3 billion in revenue. An award-winning cybersecurity veteran, Allison consults international senior leadership and their diverse cross-generational teams on growth strategies as Founder and CEO of consulting firm Thought Marketing. She is also a co-founder of AI tech start-up Discerna.ai. Allison’s clients have included Honeywell, EMC/Dell and GE, in addition to many early and mid-stage cybersecurity, SaaS, and cloud start-ups worldwide. Her vast operating experience adds a dynamic practitioner view, drawing from cybersecurity product leadership positions at McAfee and Nokia, strategist roles at Sun Microsystems (now Oracle), and corporate communications leadership at legendary cybersecurity pioneer Check Point Software. She has co-authored two Routledge, Taylor & Francis books, with a third on the way for Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Cybersecurity, in close collaboration with a global cross-discipline team of experts in law, medicine, and engineering. Allison founded her first company at age 24 and is a former Middle East journalist and New York City trade press editor. She is often described as an “energy bomb,” passionate about the human condition and its relationship with technology and innovation. Allison speaks multiple languages and holds an M.S. from San Jose State University (technology diffusion among software developers) and a B.A. in Spanish and Journalism from the University of Richmond, Virginia in addition to many domain-specific certifications Dan Rodgers – Host of Escape the Clock Podcast and Author of Escape The Clock: Your Program Guide for Financial Freedom and Early Retirement The real trick is understanding how to get your money to work for you, so that you’re making money when you’re asleep, and that you get to a point where that money has grown to a point where now you have options, and now you’re less worried about your job. Dan Rodgers is the award-winning author of Escape The Clock: Your Program Guide for Financial Freedom and Early Retirement and the host of the Escape the Clock Podcast. With more than 20 years of experience as a lead program manager at major tech companies, including Microsoft and Google, Dan applied the disciplined planning and execution skills he used in his career to his personal finances and achieved financial independence in his early 40s. His book has received multiple honors, including the American Writing Award, the PenCraft Best Book Award, and the Literary Titan Medal, and it presents a structured, actionable approach to financial freedom that treats personal finance goals like a program to be planned, tracked, and executed. Dan’s work goes beyond theory, focusing on clear steps to reduce debt, build wealth, and design a life where work becomes optional rather than necessary. Through his podcast he breaks down practical strategies for listeners at all stages of their financial journey, sharing insights on investing, risk management, and the mindset shifts needed to escape the traditional work cycle. Based in Washington State, Dan also volunteers teaching financial literacy, offers free one-on-one financial coaching, speaks on financial independence topics, and continues writing to help others reclaim control of their time and money.

Dr. Robert N. Eberhart – Associate Professor at University of San Diego Entrepreneurship is stinking hard work, particularly successful entrepreneurship. Robert N. Eberhart is an Associate Professor of Management and the Faculty Director of the Ahlers Center for International Business at the University of San Diego. He is also a visiting professor at Oxford University and a research associate at Columbia University. His research interests focus on theories of institutional change and the role of institutions on new venture performance. Professor Eberhart’s academic publications that have appeared in journals such as Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategy Science, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, and the Journal of Asian Business Studies include topics such as new theoretical constructs on how institutional change has complex effects on new firms and entrepreneurs and how the entrepreneurial ideologies are altering social relationships. He won awards for the BPS Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2014 from the Academy of Management, Best Paper Proceeding of the 2012 Academy of Management, and from the Fondation France-Japon de l’EHESS. He has been quoted in the New York Times, NPS’s “All Things Considered”, the Financial Times, Forbes, the Nikkei Weekly, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and interviewed on ABC News. Dr. Eberhart was the vice-chair of the U.S. Department of State and the Ministry of Economics, Trade, and Industry’s joint commission on bilateral entrepreneurship. Dr. Eberhart was a member of the board of directors of DynEd, Inc.. the Japan Society of Northern California, the Japan Innovation Network, and iPive, Inc. He is also an academic advisor to Japan’s Board of Director’s Training Institute and the academic advisor to the NFL’s Green Bay Packers Football Team. Dr. Eberhart was also an academic advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on New Growth Strategies. He is a member of the Academy of Management, the Institute of New Economic Theory, the International Society for New Institutional Economics. Professor Eberhart earned his Ph.D. in Management Science from Stanford University after graduating from the University of Michigan (MA Economics) and Michigan State University (BA Finance). Before resuming his academic career, he was the founder and CEO of a successful Japanese company that distributed wine throughout Asia. He also held senior management positions in the semiconductor industry. He is a private pilot, restores British sports cars, has three children, and is married to Dr. Delores Eberhart, a dentist in Palo Alto. Mirav Ozeri – Podcast Host of How Much Can I Make? – Real Job. Real Stories. Career Insights I saw how much deeper is Claude, and I hate to admit it grok, because I’m no fan of Elon Musk, and his was really the deepest questions, the deepest answers. Mirav Ozeri is a career insights journalist and the creator and host of the podcast How Much Can I Make? – Real Jobs. Real Stories. Career Insights. Through the show, she explores what careers are truly like by interviewing professionals from a wide range of industries, examining how they got started, the skills required to succeed, the challenges they face, and what they earn. Her work focuses on delivering practical, real world guidance for listeners who are pursuing their first job, considering a career change, launching a side hustle, or exploring entrepreneurship. Ozeri’s podcast aims to provide an inside look at the job market by going beyond titles to reveal the realities of different professions and the pathways into them. Each episode features candid conversations with individuals who share their career journeys and offer actionable advice to help others move forward with confidence. The program has been recognized with a nomination for the 2025 Women in Podcasting Award, reflecting its growing impact among career focused audiences. In addition to hosting, Ozeri is associated with Oz...

Eddie Speed – Founder of NoteSchool An entrepreneur’s whole thing in life is to go find an industry problem and solve a problem. Eddie Speed is the founder of NoteSchool and a recognized pioneer in the seller financing and real estate note industry. Since beginning his career in 1980, he has dedicated his professional life to developing innovative strategies that have influenced how note investing operates today. Starting with limited resources and relying on determination and practical judgment, Speed built a successful career that includes completing more than 50,000 note deals and helping shape modern note investing practices. In 1999, he founded NoteSchool to empower aspiring investors with practical education and real world opportunities in buying performing and nonperforming mortgage notes. His teaching approach is grounded in firsthand experience, and he has served over 2,000 mentoring students while fostering access to institutional level deal flow through relationships with hedge funds and private investors. Speed is also the owner and president of Colonial Funding Group LLC and a principal in a family of private equity funds focused on acquiring bulk note portfolios. Over more than three decades, Speed has remained a leader and innovator in the note business, earning industry recognition such as the Collective Genius Award for Thought Leadership in Real Estate. Known for his commitment to education and knowledge sharing, he continues to help investors pursue financial freedom while advancing the broader landscape of note investing. Emily LaRusch – Founder of Back Office Betties I learned the riches are in the niches. Emily LaRusch is the founder and CEO of Back Office Betties, a company she established in 2014 to help law firms overcome administrative challenges through legally trained virtual receptionists and assistants. Guided by a strong belief in exceptional customer service, she built the business to give attorneys back valuable time while improving client experiences. LaRusch’s entrepreneurial drive began early, showing initiative as a child with neighborhood ventures and later developing a service-focused work ethic through her first jobs. The idea for Back Office Betties was sparked by frustration after repeatedly reaching voicemail while calling local businesses, inspiring her to create a solution that supports small law firms with reliable, high-quality administrative staffing. A passionate advocate for entrepreneurship and leadership, LaRusch has volunteered with Inmates to Entrepreneurs, served on the board of the Entrepreneurs Organization, coached accelerator groups, and guest lectured at Texas A&M. Her mission extends beyond business growth, focusing on empowering entrepreneurs, fostering strong company culture, and helping professionals achieve greater balance and freedom in their work and personal lives.

Vlada Galan – Founder and Principal of Oracle Advisory Group and Author of Success Mentality: Lessons From a Geopolitical Strategist One of the most important things you can invest in, even if you’re a small business just starting, is talent. Is not hiring the cheapest labor, but hiring even if you have one employee, it’s hiring somebody who really is talented and very intelligent and very experienced. Vlada Galan is a globally recognized geopolitical strategist and crisis management expert. She advises Heads of State and high-level candidates on political and multilateral agency election campaigns across five continents. She is renowned for her expertise in crisis response, Track 2 diplomacy, international lobbying, and sanctions strategy. With a proven track record in some of the world’s most complex political environments, Vlada has led electoral and strategic advisory efforts in over a dozen countries, including Austria, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mexico, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Vlada is the President and Chairman of the Board of the International Ukrainian Crisis Fund and serves on the Advisory Board of Directors of Captis Intelligence. She is also the Founder and Principal of Oracle Advisory Group, a global consulting firm headquartered in the United Arab Emirates with offices in the United States. Prior to founding Oracle, she held senior roles at top-tier public affairs firms in Washington, D.C., including Mercury Public Affairs and Actum. Originally from Odesa, Ukraine, Vlada holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Georgia State University and a Master of Liberal Arts in International Relations from Harvard University. Her insights have been featured on major networks including CNN, Fox News, and Newsmax. October 2025 Vlada released her book Success Mentality a blueprint for achieving more in life. In 2023 Vlada was awarded a medal by the Ukrainian Government in recognition of her leadership and unwavering support for her native country, Ukraine. Nathan Strum – CEO of Abby Connect We realized very, very quickly that that was culture was going to be most important in our company, and that was how we were going to provide the great customer service over the phone. It’s not magic. It’s not a very hard formula to provide that great customer service. You just have to have a happy place to work. Nathan Strum, CEO of Abby Connect. Nathan is a leader in integrating AI-powered tools with live human services to help businesses scale while maintaining a personal touch. He offers a unique perspective on how technology, human empathy, and business growth intersect to elevate customer service. Nathan is a strong advocate for inclusive workforce development, focusing on creating career pathways for entry-level employees to advance into AI and tech roles. This is a crucial and often overlooked aspect in today’s automation-focused environment. With his hands-on approach, Nathan is deeply involved in product innovation, client success, and process optimization, aiming to bridge the gap between customer service and artificial intelligence.

Sara Daw – CEO of Liberti & CEO of The CFO Centre Group The beauty about fractional leadership is that you can make that change. Sara Daw Entrepreneur, Researcher, Writer, & Speaker Sara Daw is Group CEO of The Liberti Group and The CFO Centre Group. Operating in 18 countries, it is the global number one provider of fractional and part-time C-suite portfolio professionals to entrepreneurial, owner-managed, mid-tier businesses, and larger organisations. Listed in the 2024 and 2025 E2E Female 100, Sara is passionate about designing the future of work for C-level talent and organisations. As well as publishing the first research on the Access Economy for C-suite professionals in her second book, Strategy and Leadership as Service, she has helped thousands worldwide build successful team-based portfolio careers in the access economy. Sara is a graduate in Chemistry from Oxford University, a Chartered Accountant, holds an MBA from The London Business School, and a Mastère Spécialisé® in Consulting and Coaching for Change, run jointly by Oxford University (Saïd Business School) and HEC Business School in Paris. She is currently pursuing a part-time Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) at Warwick Business School. Rob Calvert – Founder of Second Son Consulting Otherwise you don’t get freedom. You get inconsistency, and when you have inconsistency, that becomes very costly for leadership. Rob Calvert is the Founder of Second Son Consulting, an IT consultancy he built from his den that’s designing tech ecosystems that co-evolve with a business’ people, workflows, and culture. For 25+ years, Rob has helped leaders turn IT from a cost center into a growth strategy, rooted in one core belief: most tech problems are really culture problems. With his deep field expertise that goes far beyond troubleshooting or quick fixes, he works with businesses – from startups to hybrid teams, and mature companies – to create systems that scale with purpose and impact. He started his firm in the early 2000s after being laid off, and today, has grown it into the largest member of the Apple Consultants Network in LA and among the top 10 nationwide, which works across 15+ industries supporting Apple-first and mixed-device workplaces.

Melissa Nash – Real Estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Mentor, and Host of the Passive Real Estate Investing for Her podcast I can finally sleep through the night, because I know that I’m not relying on anybody else. My properties are doing their thing. They’re creating cash flow. Melissa Nash is a seasoned real estate investor, entrepreneur, mentor, and host of the Passive Real Estate Investing for Her podcast. She has built a successful career helping women achieve financial freedom through strategic passive real estate investing. With over a decade of experience at one of the largest real estate investment companies in the United States, Melissa has guided thousands of clients toward financial independence and helped investors purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate assets. Her own journey includes building a real estate portfolio that secured her family’s future in under six years, and she uses her firsthand experience to empower others through coaching programs, educational resources, and turnkey investment solutions. Driven by a mission to increase representation of women in real estate, Melissa believes that when women earn and invest, positive change ripples outward. Her Passive Real Estate Investing for Her podcast offers actionable strategies, expert interviews, and practical advice designed to inspire and equip listeners to take control of their financial futures. Tim Elmore – Founder of Growing Leaders Inside of every Gen Z’er, and probably every young adult in any generation, there is two tugs at their heart. On the one side, I want to be me. On the other side, I want to belong. Dr. Tim Elmore is first and foremost a family man. He has been married to Pam for 44 years, and they have two adult children, both married and in their careers. His other loves include their dog Sadie (CEO of their home), reading, sports and popcorn, not necessarily in that order. He not only leads Tim Elmore, Inc. as he speaks to businesses, sports teams & non-profits, but he is the Founder of Growing Leaders, a non-profit organization, created to develop emerging leaders. His passion for leader development and for the emerging generation grew out of his work alongside best-selling author Dr. John C. Maxwell since 1983. Growing Leaders and Maxwell Leadership Foundation merged in 2023. Over the last decade, Tim has spoken to 500,000 leaders in corporations, such as The Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, Ford Motor Company, Cox Communications, Cici’s Pizza, Coca Cola Bottlers Association, and Delta Global. His curriculum has been used by sports teams like the Kansas City Royals, New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Rockets, San Francisco Giants, as well as athletic departments at the University of Alabama, Ohio State, Stanford and Duke University. He is committed to building the next generation of leaders all over the globe. Tim Elmore’s expertise on the emerging generation and generational diversity at work has led to national media coverage on CNN’s Headline News, Fox Business, Newsmax and Fox & Friends. A TEDx speaker, his blog is read by 100,000 people weekly. Tim writes a column for Inc. and Psychology Today and was listed as one of the top 100 leadership speakers by Inc. magazine. Tim has written 40 books, including the best-selling Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future, Habitudes®: Images that Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes, Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership and A New Kind of Diversity. His latest book, releases November 2025, is The Future Begins with Z: Nine Strategies for Leading Generation Z as They Disrupt the Workplace.