Topic: Leadership

John Foley

What if the legendary Blue Angels Culture of Excellence could be replicated and scaled?

Since 2015, John Foley has been recognized as one of the top 10 most in demand speakers. John has spoken to some of the highest performing organizations in the world such as, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Goodyear, Chevron, Lowe's, Marriott, Hilton, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, NCAA, Penske Racing, Sprint, Motorola, Merrill Lynch, Mass Mutual, AMC Theatre, Norton Lifelock, Capital Group, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, GE, American Hospital Association, Mayo, Merck, Palo Alto Networks, Sunovion, Gillette, McDonalds, Stanford Business School, Global Sports Summit, and numerous CEO Summits to name a few.

He is the former lead solo pilot of the Blue Angels, Bestselling Author of Fearless Success, an expert in the How of High Performance teams and 'The Guru of Gratitude.’ As a Blue Angel, John consistently performed in an extreme, high-stakes environment, flying at speeds of more than 500 miles per hour in formations as close as 18 inches apart. To survive in those circumstances, he relied on a culture of high trust, leadership, and teamwork. John employs the intense realities of his aviation career as a metaphor to inspire - breathe life into - teams to reach for their highest potential and sustain excellence under dynamic change. John’s presentations are highlighted by:

  • An energizing delivery that inspires High Performance with a grateful mindset.
  • Awe inspiring storytelling and electrifying video of the legendary Blue Angels in action.
  • A contagious attitude of gratitude that he calls Glad To Be Here®.
  • A unique approach that equips others to take the same journey toward excellence, teamwork, and transformation.

In 2011 John founded the Glad To Be Here Foundation. John donates 10% of his speaking fees to charities through the foundation. The program has donated over $2 million to 380+ charities and impacted thousands of lives globally including sponsoring 47 children in 47 countries. It's part of his mission to connect a shared ‘purpose larger than self’ with every organization.

Philip Beale

Philip is an intrepid explorer, adventurer and leader. By the age of 21 he had participated in two expeditions in the Pacific region and Papua New Guinea, ultimately trekking solo along the north coast of Papua New Guinea and then venturing up the mighty Sepik River. In 2005 he participated in a rafting decent of the Firth River in northern Canada and the following year completed the first skiing traverse of Liverpool Land in Eastern Greenland.  He is best known for his pioneering adventures in replica ancient sailing ships, where he has sailed more miles (over 30 thousand) in the in charge of ancient type vessels than any living or historic sailors. He is driven by a passion and determination to better understand how ancient civilisations have migrated by trans-oceanic voyages.

From his trans-Indian Ocean voyage in an Indonesian double outrigger ship (2003-04) to the completion of his most recent voyage in 2019 across the Atlantic in a replica Phoenician galley, Philip has pushed himself to the very limits of endurance. He has sailed through pirate invested waters around Somalia (2009) and battled with a torn main sail in 40 knot winds off the Cape of Good Hope.

Philip is a highly experienced expedition leader. His tenacity, drive and determination kept him focussed, motivating his crew and dealing with the most challenging of situations. The experience he has gained from his incredible endeavours of planning, commissioning the building of the ships and leading three expeditions is what he shares with audiences internationally, enabling him to motivate and inspire on leadership, teamwork, overcoming adversity, negotiation and project management.

Sunnie J. Groeneveld

Sunnie J. Groeneveld is the Managing Partner of the consultancy Inspire 925 and co-founder of its two spin-off companies LunchLottery and Inspire 529. She serves as the Associate Dean of Studies at the HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration in Zurich, where she is responsible for the EMBA in Digital Leadership. She is also a board member of the engineering company HHM, the media group Galledia, the insurance company Sympany and the agency Jung von Matt/Limmat.

Past engagements include serving as the first managing director of digitalswitzerland, the nation’s largest cross-industry initiative on digital transformation. She authored the book “Inspired at Work” (Versus Verlag) and graduated in Economics from Yale -University.

Carlos Alvarado Quesada

Carlos Alvarado Quesada, the forty-eighth President of the Republic of Costa Rica, completed his constitutionally limited term in May 2022. As of July 1, 2022, he joined the faculty of The Fletcher School at Tufts University as Professor of Practice in Diplomacy, Executive Education Keynote, and Senior Fellow in the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World.

Widely praised for his innovative approach to sustainable energy, his ambitious climate policies, and a highly successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Alvarado joins Fletcher’s world-renowned multi-disciplinary faculty with a focus on small states diplomacy and preparing tomorrow’s leaders to address the most pressing global issues.

In June 2022, at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, President Alvarado was awarded the 2022 Planetary Leadership Award by the National Geographic Society for his outstanding commitment and action toward protecting the ocean. The Planetary Leadership Award honors world leaders who have successfully established globally significant protected areas, such as national parks, wilderness areas, or marine reserves, that are shielded from exploitation. In November 2019, President Alvarado was named as one of TIME’s 100 Next emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. In September 2019, he received on behalf of his country the Champion of the Earth Award for policy leadership, presented by the United Nations Environment Program.

Under President Alvarado’s leadership, Costa Rica has contributed to global efforts to combat climate change, and defended human rights, democracy, and multilateralism, including the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative with the World Health Organization to facilitate faster, equitable, and affordable access to COVID-19 health products for people in all countries. Furthermore, his administration has overseen historic fiscal reforms to strengthen the country’s economy.

In February 2019, President Alvarado launched Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan, the first of its kind since the Paris Agreement of 2015 which established the road map to decarbonize the country’s economy by 2050, organized the run-up to U.N. Climate Change Conference – COP25 in Madrid, and created with France and the United Kingdom the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People that now includes more than one hundred member states. He was responsible for Costa Rica’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), marking the fourth Latin American country and the first in Central America to do so.

Before inauguration as his nation’s president in May 2018, President Alvarado served as Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion (2014 – 2016) and as Executive President of the Joint Social Welfare Institute, responsible for implementing social protection and promoting poverty alleviation programs. He then served as Minister of Labor and Social Security (2016 – 2018) in the presidency of Luis Guillermo Solís for whom he served as the presidential campaign’s communications director (2013 – 2014). Before entering politics, President Alvarado worked for Procter and Gamble, Latin America.

Born in San José, President Alvarado received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Costa Rica in 2001 from which he also received a master’s degree in political science in 2006. He went on in 2009 to receive a master’s degree in development studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex University, United Kingdom. Between 2006 and 2010, he served as an advisor to the Citizen Action Party’s group in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica.

Jez Rose

Jez Rose is a Behavior Insight Advisor with 20 years experience. Sought-after for his memorable, credible content, and audience engagement as a live and virtual motivational speaker, Jez applies behavioural psychology to improve sales, lower attrition and enhance innovation across a diverse range of people-led topics.

If he looks familiar, you may recognise him from television, Instagram or YouTube, or a conference; one of his books or articles, or from a brand campaign or podcast. A passion for asking questions led him to research the impact of nature on human health, wellbeing and behaviour, and purchase a decommissioned farm in England. It became the world’s first certified Carbon Neutral honey farm, rearing and reintroducing the native British honeybee. The farm developed into an award-winning and Soil Association certified organic site, where much of the research was conducted.

Recognised as one of the leading global keynote speakers, he is renowned for delivering impact and long-lasting results. Now spending his time between England and the USA, for 20 years he has worked with more than 800 clients worldwide to engage, inspire and train their teams, helping to better understand why we do the things we do, and how to change behaviours for the better.

He has authored six books (two for children) and hundreds of articles for the likes of CNN.com, The Daily Telegraph, and The Evening Standard. His latest book, "Flip the Switch" is published by Capstone/Wiley and spent two weeks in the WHSmith Top 10 Best Seller List, where it reached number 1, and won the Beverly Hills Book Award.

As an experienced broadcaster and after several years presenting television in England he hosted his own show for ITV1, was a co-host on BBC1 and special guest on ITV and QVC. Now he creates shareable, engaging content for YouTube and regularly works on international media campaigns for brands including TK Maxx, Crowne Plaza Hotels, Volkswagen, and Philips.

Jez Rose is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; an Associate Member of the Inner Magic Circle (with silver star), London, and magician member of The Academy of Magical Arts, Hollywood.

Jason Yarusi

JASON’S MESSAGE EMPOWERS YOU TO LIVE 100.

Jason Yarusi is a charismatic communicator who electrifies every stage he graces. His magnetic presence, coupled with his captivating storytelling prowess, leaves audiences spellbound and hungry for knowledge. With an ability to seamlessly blend his personal experiences with actionable insights, he transforms complex concepts into practical takeaways, equipping his listeners with the tools they need to conquer their own journeys to success.

Jason is a private fund manager of over $300 million dollars in commercial real estate. Since 2017 his company Yarusi Holdings has amassed over 3000 apartment and commercial real estate units. Jason has built and exited multiple companies: construction, restaurants, a brewery and multiple large apartment communities.

He is an avid ultra runner and workout enthusiast.

Jason is the host of LIVE100 and The Multifamily Live Podcast and runs 7 Figure Multifamily Mastermind.

And most importantly a husband and a father to three amazing kids, a bulldog named Jill and fifteen chickens.

Jason brings all of his hands-on experience to you. His personal story and extensive work have made him an inspirational force, captivating audiences as a dynamic motivational speaker. With an innate ability to ignite positive transformations, Jason empowers individuals to conquer challenges and embrace change with unwavering resilience. His electrifying talks instill a renewed sense of purpose, propelling audiences to reach new heights in both personal and professional spheres.

Your audience will be inspired by Jason's story, his journey, and his experience creating the life of his dreams by taking responsibility for his day and actions.

Rebecca Theodore

Rebecca Theodore is an experienced international journalist, professional writer syndicated op-ed columnist and public speaker. A highly driven communicator, Rebecca is powered by purpose and is renowned for her conversationalist brilliance and coruscating writing and speaking abilities.

Rebecca’s passion for public speaking traces back to her early years in her Seventh-Day Adventist Church where she delivered her first speech at 12 years old.  From there Rebecca Theodore personifies what it means to ascend above adversity by using criticism as a tool of empowerment.

Rebecca’s abilities as a speaker and writer are celebratory. An award-winning public speaker, Rebecca Theodore sails among word reefs, her prose swells to near poetry at many stages of the journey as she deluges her audience with torrents of eloquence.

Known to vigorously defend and debate her views and opinions, Rebecca Theodore has successfully addressed the Harvard Caribbean Law School Conference, the Discoveries Mining Conference, The Peaceful Caribbean Conference and the Women in Leadership Conference among others.

As an articulate pro-Israel activist, Rebecca Theodore has held notable debates in universities and campuses on the Biblical mandate to support Israel, while platforming the agenda of political parties and social organizations at national conventions and gracing the pulpits of many churches in the US, Canada and the Caribbean in sharing her inspiring message of hope, perseverance and faith in the creator of the universe.

As an international journalist, Rebecca Theodore’s formidable intellectual powers are refreshingly direct, decorating the pages of the LA Times, The Jewish Voice, the Chicago Tribune, The Associated Press, The Baltimore Post Examiner, National Public Radio -NPR, The Nassau Guardian Caribbean News Service, The Cayman Observer, Caribbean News Now, The Root.com, The Freeport News, The Daily Me, The Caribbean Writer, The Washington Pan African, and Nation of Change among others.

Rebecca Theodore’s journalistic and writing credits include the United Nations General Assembly UNGA, The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals UNSDG, The US State Department, The   Bloomberg Global Forum, World Economic Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, Concordia International Forum, and the United Against Nuclear Iran.

In combining her liberal arts education with politics, public administration and journalism, Rebecca Theodore has mastered the art of speech writing, thus translating complex economic, political and policy issues into clear messages for the general public, and has been an outspoken advocate for gender equality on a global scale, earning recognition into the Encyclopedia of speakers as a prominent keynote speaker on gender equality and women’s rights.

In addition to authoring numerous op-eds on politics, national security, human rights, climate change and mining, Rebecca Theodore has been recognized as a key person of influence in the field of journalism and professional writing in Women of Distinction magazine in NY and is eager to initiate dialogues around mining’s contribution of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal UNSDG #7 and #9, as Rebecca Theodore believes  that mining plays a significant role in the green tech revolution, and is the next energy transition for sustainable development

Rebecca Theodore is the powerful voice behind the upcoming television interviews:  Mining, Metals and sustainable development in a post covid global environment.

Giovanni Guidetti

Giovanni Guidetti is believed to be one of the best head coaches of all times in woman volleyball. Born in Modena in 1972, he started his professional coaching career at the age of 23 and coached national teams all around the world, including United States of America, Bulgaria, Germany and Holland. He has lived in Turkey since 2008, working as the head coach of VakıfBank club. Giovanni Guidetti won 5 CEV Champions League, 4 FIVB World Cup, 7 Turkish League and 5 Turkish Cup trophies during the last 10 years. He has also been appointed as the head coach of Turkish National Team in 2017. Under the leadership of Guidetti, Turkish National Team has been qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the team reached quarters for first time in Olympics history.

Besides his successful coaching career, Mr. Guidetti is a famous activist. He is pioneering various projects to fight against gender discrimination, using volleyball as a strong tool to empower girls all around the country and tear down the barriers for girls for equal access to sports. He is the founder of a social movement platform called “Yarının Sultanları” (Sultan of Tomorrow). The mission of the platform is to provide equal opportunity to the girls in the socio-economically disadvantaged regions of Turkey through volleyball. He visits the villages of disadvantaged regions with his assistant coaches and train the girls who have never played volleyball. In 2019, he has been officially appointed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the advocate for gender equality. This is the first time sports person has been chosen to become United Nations advocates in Turkey.

Richard Florida

Richard Florida is the Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Global Research Professor at New York University, and the founder of the Creative Class Group, which works closely with governments and companies worldwide, Richard Florida is perhaps the world’s leading urbanist.

Combining in-depth analysis, cutting-edge trends, compelling personal stories and a touch of humor, it is no wonder Richard Florida is one of the world’s most sought after speakers, alongside luminaries such as Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor.

As a leading public intellectual, Esquire Magazine named him one of their Best and Brightest. Richard has also been appointed to the Business Innovation Factory’s Research Advisory Council and recently named European Ambassador for Creativity and Innovation.

Florida is the author of several global best sellers, including the award-winning The Rise of the Creative Class (“one of the best business books of all time”—800-CEO-READ), and is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for Atlantic Cities, the world’s leading media site devoted to cities and urban affairs. Florida appears regularly on CNN and other news broadcasts and is a regular contributor to the op ed pages of major newspapers and magazines.

TIME magazine recognized his Twitter feed as one of the 140 most influential in the world. Florida previously taught at Carnegie Mellon and George Mason University, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Nora Seneviratne

Nora has spent 20 years partnering with many large private and government organisations across various industries globally, working in highly complex, ambiguous, fast-paced, and also in unionised and blue-collar environments.

She has successfully led many large-scale business-critical Change Management programmes and maintained high performing and collaborative teams, including through periods of change.

Having seen inside many of the world’s largest and most complex organisations, Nora knows what it takes to create a healthy workplace, where motivated people work together to achieve great results. She also knows what it takes to excel as a leader.

She has helped many leaders at all levels of an organisation to shift their mindset and embrace change so they can accelerate their growth, thrive during change and foster innovation.

Nora holds a Master of Science in Organisational Behaviour, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and is trained as a Neuroleadership Coach, which means that she uses techniques based on neuroscience when she coaches leaders.

Nora shares strategies that she has successfully implemented over the years, leaving attendees equipped with new tools and thinking that can be implemented in their own lives and organisations.

Silvia Damiano

Silvia's scientific background and curiosity about the human brain led her to a decade long journey of research into optimal brain functioning and the application of neuroscience in leadership and daily life. Her past and current roles have uniquely prepared her for the current undertaking, that of leadership activist & change agent.

Silvia Damiano founded the About my Brain Institute in 2009, with the purpose of democratizing leadership & neuroscience. She has a passionately held belief, that leaders in our 21st-century global economy and their organizations must radically change long-held ideas of what constitutes effective leadership.

In her ground-breaking book ‘Leadership is Upside Down’ and the 2018 documentary ‘MakeMe A Leader’, Silvia provides both compelling evidence and explores the importance of leadership in our personal and professional lives and what it takes to develop the human behind the leader.

Silvia has worked in different countries, across many industries, helping teams and organizations improve business performance. Silvia’s clients have described her as a passionate, dynamic, a highly experienced speaker and master facilitator on the topics of Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Change, Neuroleadership & Engagement.

Ishan Gupta

Ishan Gupta is the Managing Director, Udacity, India. Udacity is democratizing education to make it affordable and accessible for people around the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with operations in China, Germany, India, and the UK, Udacity provides online education to millions of students in collaboration with top employers including Google, Facebook, AT&T, IBM Watson, Amazon Alexa, Mercedes, Didi Chuxing, FlipKart and more. Ishan’s role in Udacity as the Managing Director for India is to build a strong team, launch more India-focused courses and take the Indian business to new heights.

Ishan was until end of 2016, the Vice President (Business) at Paytm (India's largest mobile commerce company, valued at $6Bn). Before that, he was running EduKart in India, which he had founded in 2011. The company went on to become the largest education marketplace of India.

Ishan has earlier worked at Facebook as a growth manager for India and established a corporate development division for a telco services company.

With a philosophy, ‘good is the enemy of great’; Ishan’s passion about democratisation of education has allowed him to lead and contribute to various initiatives which have resulted in education being an equaliser.

He did his engineering from University of Delhi and MBA from Stanford University, California, USA. Besides that, Ishan has published a book on entrepreneurship titled “Make the Move- Demystifying Entrepreneurship” and has been invited to speak on topics of leadership, entrepreneurship and ed-tech at various prestigious venues in India and outside including TEDx, Stanford Graduate Business School, IITs (Delhi, Mumbai), IIM - Bangalore, ISB, India Conference at Harvard and many more.

Ishan frequently writes on topics pertaining to education, technology, entrepreneurship and business management for leading Indian publications like The Times of India, India Today, YourStory, Indian Express and more. Ishan has also been featured on prestigious global and Indian platforms like TechCrunch and The Economic Times among others.

For his contribution to education technology, Ishan has been featured twice on CNBC Young Turks in 2006 and 2018. Young Turks is one of CNBC - TV 18’s longest running shows for young entrepreneurs in India. He has also served as the chairperson of Education Technology Committee of Internet & Mobile Association of India.  

 

Miniya Chatterji

Miniya is CEO of Sustain Labs Paris, an enterprise with offices in France, India, New Zealand, U.A.E, that establishes and manages new institutions and assets that profoundly move the needle towards a sustainable future.

Notably, in the UAE, Sustain Labs works as an integrated team with the Dubai World Trade Centre to set up a new institution to move the private sector in the UAE towards net zero emissions as well as establish GITEX Impact. In India, under Miniya’s leadership, Sustain Labs has established India’s first climate university, offering undergraduate, masters, Ph.D degrees, and executive education programs in climate studies. It has also established a state of the art Climate Lab, which is the first of its kind in India as well. In India, Sustain Labs' annual flagship ranking of India's Most
Sustainable Companies is published each year since 2020. Also in India, Sustain Labs founded in 2018 and runs the Anant Centre for Sustainability and the Anant Fellowship for Climate Action. During the pandemic, Miniya initiated and led a coalition of corporate and government partners to establish 28 COVID hospitals across 5 states in India.

Miniya is also Adjunct Professor at SciencesPo Paris, where she teaches since 2016. Miniya is on the Steering Group for Sustainability United Nations Global Compact India, and the World Steel Sustainability Expert Group. She is a member of the Global Alliance on Climate Change and Education that was launched at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. She is also on the team of the Social Credits initiative, and a member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds.

She is a Jury Member for the Million Dollar Global Teacher Prize, The World’s Best School prize, and a Jury Member for The Circulars Award at Davos. She is on the Board of The School of Collective Intelligence at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, and of the Institute for Democracy 2I in Prague, besides other organisations. She serves as the elected President of the SciencesPo Alumni Community in India.

Miniya is also the author of the best seller Indian Instincts - essays on equality and freedom in India (Penguin Random House, January 2018). The book is about the social consequences of economic growth in India. It emphasises that the institutions such as government, corporations, religion, that were created by us now limit our freedom. AIndian Instincts was launched and distributed in Switzerland, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. The Bengali language edition of the book was published by Sampark Publishing House in 2021. The French language edition of the book was published by Penguin Random House in April 2020.She is a contributor to the Harvard Business Review and a columnist for the The Indian Express, and The Pioneer newspapers.

Miniya is a Member of the Parliament of Francophone Writers, as appointed by the Government of France and convened by Minister Leila Slimani.

Miniya was Chief Sustainability Officer 2014 - 2017 for Jindal Steel and Power, a USD 3.8 billion business conglomerate whose main interests are in steel, power, infrastructure. At the company Miniya led the following departments - Environment, Energy Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, R&D, Health & Safety, Brand Management, as well as JSPL’s 7 schools, 5 community colleges, and 3 universities. She also oversaw a television company and news website owned by the promoter. Her role at JSPL was to ensure long term, holistic, and strategic growth of the company.

Previously Miniya worked at the World Economic Forum in Geneva 2011 - 2014. There Miniya managed Middle East, North Africa, South Asia regions for the Young Global Leaders community. She was part of the World Economic Forum’s leadership team for the Middle East summit as well as the India summit. She curated working groups, task forces, panel discussions, at the World Economic Forum’s regional summits as well as at the World Economic Forum’s annual summit in Davos where she moderated sessions as well. Miniya was also a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum.

Alongside, Miniya is also the founder of The Stargazers Foundation, a not for profit organization that works for improving education and health for women in India.

Earlier, for a few years Miniya was managing two Hedge Funds of $200 million AUM at HSBC in Paris. She was investing in a portfolio of 30 Hedge Funds. Prior to that, she worked in the research team for Hedge Funds at JP Morgan in Paris.

Miniya started on her investment banking career at Goldman Sachs in London in 2007.

Previous to investment banking, Miniya worked in politics from 2002 to 2005 in France as Policy Analyst at Fondapol founded by Jerome Monod, the Chief Advisor to President Jacques Chirac. She worked closely with Jerome Monod and President Jacques Chirac on subjects related to development. She led the mission to organise President Jacques Chirac’s official visit to India in 2006. She also wrote speeches for both Jerome Monod and President Jacques Chirac.

Miniya has a PhD and DEA from SciencesPo Paris, and a B.A. from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She has Executive Management certificates at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, INSEAD, and at Columbia University. She was a PhD fellow at Harvard University and Columbia University in New York, and is a Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

In 2019 Miniya was awarded as India’s most influential business leaders of the year under 40 years of age by Business World. In 2018 she was bestowed the award of ‘Most influential Sustainability leader in India’ at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit and Awards. In 2016 she was awarded by the Navoothan Foundation for her personal social commitment. She has also been awarded the prestigious CSR India award 2016 for corporate social responsibility. In the same year, Miniya’s contribution to the field of sustainability was the cover story of Business World
Asia.

Carlos Piera

Carlos is just a Happy guy! He has always been. Since very young he’s been following the happiness journey. He won a “Happiest Kid” Award at the age of 11, he did some comedy shows, acting and singing because he realized he wanted to make people smile. At the age of 23 he did an inspiring trip where he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. After many “looking at the stars” nights, some books and great chats with his dad, best friend and himself, he decided that he wanted to make people happy. He went to India with the thought of creating an NGO; he first worked in a Human Resources Consulting Firm combining it with volunteering with the most needed people and did it for 8 months. The people he was helping were happy…what was happiness all about? Money? That is when it hit him: “I’ll go back and help make happy work”. He joined Grupo CMR but that wasn’t quite it!

In recent years, Carlos Piera worked as a CCI (Terminology for Sales Consultant Innovator) at Grupo CMR the first HR Consulting firm in Spain, They provide companies with training, organizational development, management leadership development, etc. In executive capacities with the company, Carlos oversaw operations, customer service, and marketing and was involved in all the stages of consulting projects. Through a successful 2 year and 8 month tenure, he developed and implemented several Service, Sales and Leadership development projects, leading to revenue and growth.

Furthermore, Carlos started collaborating with Delivering Happiness as a follower of the movement and slowly became one of the key members of the community. Driven by his passion he flew to meet the team and realized that what he had seen was his purpose! He then decided to collaborate as a volunteer and do whatever the DH Family needed. Carlos joined the DH@Work team and he gives all he has to make happy work! Just a few of the leading companies he has work with include: Lindt, Levis, Pans&Company, Desigual, ANGroup, NH Hotels, Reparalia, Henkel and more...

Shereen H. Eltobgy

Shereen H. Eltobgy MBA, is a coach, consultant and global speaker on happiness and awareness in the workplace as a path to strengthen leaders, create new ones, improve engagement, change business and transform lives.

With a focus on the 3 “Cs” of “Connect. Collaborate. Create”, she unleashes human potential to bring happiness and freedom of self into companies and in the world.  She’s a lifelong development diva who is passionate about cultivating others to live, work and play with enthusiasm. With an MBA in International Business and training in coaching, transpersonal development, leadership, and conscious communication, Shereen brings an approach that is global, humanistic and rooted in awareness.  She has been a sales & business development leader for over 15 years, working with 3 of the 5 top software companies of the 90s and a global leadership and human performance development organization.

Shereen is a lead coach and consultant with Delivering Happiness, llc a faculty member of the Self Awareness Institute.  Just a few of the leading companies she has worked for or engaged with include: CA Technologies, GlobalNovations, BSI Americas, Kering, McKesson, MPI, Fierce Inc., Genentech, TSYS, Web Industries, SunTrust Banks, and Diageo.  She has also worked with organizations and spoken at events throughout the USA, the Middle East and in Europe.

Raised internationally, residing in the U.S. and educated in both, she considers herself a student of the world.  She draws on global philosophies, in an integrated approach to work and life that blends ancient wisdom with modern modalities. Her passions include laughing every day with her two sons, dance, meditation, travel, connecting with her “tribe” and inspiring others towards awareness, harmony and happiness.

Nadja Swarovski

Nadja Swarovski was born in Germany in 1970. She studied Art History at Southern Methodist University in Texas, and at Sotheby's Institute of Art and the Gemological Institute of America in New York City.
She grew up hearing family stories of how her great-great-grandfather Daniel supplied Swarovski crystals to embellish Queen Victoria’s dresses, how her grandfather worked with Christian Dior to create the aurora borealis crystal stone effect; and she saw how her father Helmut Swarovski ensured that Swarovski remained at the forefront of technological advances and new market opportunities, including marketing crystal figurines.
Nadja Swarovski joined the Swarovski family firm in 1995, 100 years after it was founded by her great-great-grandfather Daniel Swarovski in 1895 in Wattens, Austria. She is the first female Member of the Executive Board at Swarovski Crystal Business.
Nadja's career began with Larry Gagosian, the New York gallerist, followed by a time with legendary fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. She joined the family business in 1995, working for Swarovski in Hong Kong and travelling extensively in Asia to gain an international perspective before returning to New York. Early in her career Nadja befriended fashion icon Isabella Blow, who supported her vision of bringing Swarovski's rich heritage of working with the leading couturiers of Paris to the forefront of the brand's contemporary image. Blow introduced her to young design talents who became long-time Swarovski collaborators, such as Alexander McQueen and Phillip Treacy.
This laid the foundations for a series of visionary initiatives which have established Nadja as one of the 21st century's major patrons of design. These include the Swarovski Collective and Runway Rocks, which aim to support and celebrate both emerging and established talents in fashion and jewelry design, as well as luxury jewelry business Atelier Swarovski, whose designers include Zaha Hadid, Christopher Kane, Viktor & Rolf and Karl Lagerfeld.
In 2002 Nadja launched Swarovski Crystal Palace, an experimental platform which pushes the boundaries of lighting and design through collaborations with artists, architects and product designers using the medium of crystal. This has resulted in a spectacular body of work which provides a snapshot of the most exciting and creative minds of the first decade of the 21st century.
Since 2002 Swarovski has supported the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards, sponsoring awards for emerging talents in three categories.
Swarovski is Chairwoman and Executive Producer of Swarovski Entertainment which was established in 2010 to continue the company's collaboration with the film industry.
Nadja is a supporter of many cultural and arts causes including Films Without Borders and the English National Ballet, as well as charities including Maggie’s Centres, Women for Women, the NSPCC and Walk the Walk.
Swarovski received a Visionaries Award from the Museum of Art and Design in 2007.
In 2011 the CFDA honoured Swarovski for continued support of the American fashion industry.
Nadja Swarovski received the Making a Difference Award 2012 from Women for Women International.
In 2013, Swarovski received the NatWest UK Fashion & Textile Award for Outstanding Achievement from HRH The Princess Royal, President of the UK Fashion & Textile Association
Swarovski is married to hedge-fund manager Rupert Adams. They live with their daughters Thalia and Jasmine and son Rigby in London.

José María Figueres

José María Figueres is currently the President of the Carbon War Room, a global initiative conceptualized by Sir Richard Branson and a select group of innovators towards the end of 2009.

The Carbon War Room accelerates entrepreneurial solutions to deploy profitable, scalable clean technologies across industries. José María came to the Carbon War Room as an experienced and internationally recognized leader in the achievement of sustainable development goals. After a successful business career, he entered public service in 1987.

Having held several cabinet level posts, he was elected President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998, becoming the youngest Latin American head of state in modern times. As President he created a comprehensive national development strategy combining sound macroeconomic policies, strategic investments in human development, and a strong alliance with nature. For his pioneering work he received the first ever Global Environmental Facility Leadership Award in 1998. Convinced that technology enhances sustainable development, he has made this linkage in the realms of business, public service, and non-profit organizations. He brought INTEL to Costa Rica, the only Latin American country with such a production facility and spearheaded the creation of a national cluster of high tech exports.

Together with Nicolas Negroponte, Founder of Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jeffrey Sachs, the world recognized development economist, Figueres established the Digital Nations Programme with the objective of enhancing development opportunities through technological applications. In 1999, at the request of then Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, Figueres established the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (ICT), serving first as the Special Representative to the ICT Advisory Group and then as elected chair of the ICT Task Force for 3 years.

In 2000 President Figueres joined the World Economic Forum as a Managing Director, and later became the organization’s first CEO. During his tenure until the end of 2004, he strengthened the organization’s multi- stakeholder approach by identifying long-term objectives on which global corporations, government representatives, and civil society leaders collaborated.

As of 2005, Jose Maria became CEO Concordia 21, a social investment vehicle based in Madrid, Spain, that promotes development and democratic values around the world. In 2010 President Figueres returned to Geneva, Switzerland, as Managing Partner of IJ Partners SA, an investment and wealth management company with a specific focus on the real economy. Throughout his career President Figueres has served as a member of several company boards. These have included Terremark Inc. (USA), BT Global Services Strategy & Marketing Advisory Board (United Kingdom), Abraaj Capital Advisory Board (Dubai, UAE), and Grupo San Cristobal (Costa Rica). He has also served with distinction on the boards of several non-profit organizations: World Wildlife Fund (USA), The World Resources Institute (USA), the Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden), and as International Advisor at the Global Environmental Action (Japan).

Today, President Figueres is the Chairperson of the Global Fairness Initiative (USA). He also serves as a Board Member on the Earth Council Geneva (Switzerland); DARA, an internationally recognized humanitarian organization; and FRIDE, the leading Spanish think-tank focused on European issues. In addition, Figueres is a Member of the Dean’s Alumni Leadership Council at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Thunderbird School of Management.

He received a degree in engineering from the US Military Academy at West Point, and a Masters in public administration from the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

President Figueres is a citizen of Costa Rica where he was born, and of the Kingdom of Spain.

He has two children, José María and Eugenia.

Maickel Melamed Trujillo

Maickel Melamed was born on April 27 of 1975 in Caracas, Venezuela. Melamed was diagnosed at birth with "motor delay" (a state of general hypotonia of the body) due to asphyxiation with umbilical cord and the doctors did not give him long life. What defines Maickel Melamed, from the beginning of his life, has been his self-motivated and courageous everyday bet against adversity, the fullness of his existence and his transcendence.

Maickel Melamed is passionate about HUMAN POWER; he is an economist, psychotherapist, Life Management coach, author, speaker, communicator and high performance athlete. All this defines his areas of action, from which he builds with tools and methodologies to facilitate his vocation: expansion, productivity, development and human growth. From his integral vision of the human being, he shows through the most diverse forms, that we all have the ability to build, through our talents and passions, a fantastic story worth living, enjoying and sharing.

Transforming the impossible into reality has been his signature, conveying his message of possibility, effectiveness and humanity. For more than a decade, he has been a speaker, facilitator and workshop director for organizations in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica and the United States.

He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations in Venezuela and a member of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. His purpose in life is to help others be better, beyond what they think they can be, through the discovery of their true potential and its later usage. Maickel Melamed has practiced extreme sports such as paragliding, parachuting, diving, and mountain climbing. He is currently dedicated to athletics. He climbed the highest mountain in his country Venezuela, the 5007m high Bolívar Peak.

Despite his condition, Melamed has participated in several marathons and has been able to conclude successfully. In 2011 he participated in the New York marathon, subsequently in Berlin, Chicago and Boston in 2015.

Putting what he believes in into action, both personally and professionally, is his contribution to the planet he wishes for future generations, a world in which success is too small a goal and human transcendence comes to take its place.

David Bradford

Dr. Bradford's interests are in the areas of leadership, interpersonal influence, and executive teams.

In all of these, he has focused on the question, "What does it take to achieve high performance?" The results have suggested that, especially in knowledge-based organizations, excellence is most likely when leaders build strong teams where the members' role is significantly expanded so that they share responsibility for the management of the unit (including making the core decisions jointly and holding each other accountable for performance).

His recent work on influence has led to exploring the conditions for a "feedback rich organization" where team members, through a structured process, give each other face-to-face feedback to improve individual and team performance.

David Bradford is the Eugene O'Kelly II Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Leadership. He received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Michigan and taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before coming to Stanford in 1969. His research interests have led to five books, numerous articles, and three training programs on leadership, team performance, and the influence process.

He also has consulted and conducted executive programs to a variety of organizations in the for-profit and not-for-profit sector, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Cisco Systems, Levi Strauss & Co., Roche Pharmaceutical, Raychem, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In addition, Dr. Bradford has been involved with educational innovation at the college level. He was the founder of The Organizational Behavior Teaching Society and the first editor of their journal. He received the Exemplar of Excellence in Education award from The University of Phoenix.

Dr. Bradford is on the editorial board of The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Journal of Management Education, and The Academy of Management Learning and Education.

Pasi Sahlberg

Pasi Sahlberg is Finnish educator and scholar. Dr. Sahlberg has a long professional history in education and development. He worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator and policy advisor in Finland and was actively engaged in planning and implementing education reforms in Finland in the 1990s.

He has served the World Bank in Washington, DC, the European Commission and the OECD as an external expert advising foreign governments in more than 45 countries around the world. His research interests include international education policies, educational change, and classroom teaching. He is board member of several educational organizations, including the ASCD, the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education (IASCE), and the Centre on International Education Benchmarking (CIEB).

He is also editorial board member of Journal of Educational Change, European Journal of Educational Evaluation and Research, and Educational Policy Studies Journal. He speaks around the world about educational improvement, enhancing equity and excellence in schools, and the future of schooling.

He has spoken at the national Parliaments in England, Scotland and New Zealand, and addressed the European Parliament in Brussels twice.

He is a former Director General of CIMO (National Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki where he led internationalization of Finnish education system.

Pasi Sahlberg is a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA, USA. He is Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and at the University of Oulu. He enjoys family-life, reading, writing, music, basketball and golf.

His bestseller book “Finnish Lessons 2.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?” won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award and he received the 2012 Education Award in Finland and 2014 Robert Owen Award in Scotland.

In 2013 he received First Class Knight of the White Rose in Finland.

Mark Gallagher

During the course of a 30-year career Mark Gallagher has held senior roles in the high-performance environment of Formula 1 motor racing. Today he is an author, broadcaster and industry analyst who continues to work with drivers and teams at the forefront of this global sport. He is also a renowned public speaker and since 1998 has provided keynote presentations and insights to organisations worldwide.

Mark’s executive management career in Formula 1 included more than a decade on the management board of the successful Jordan Grand Prix team, running the world-famous Cosworth engine business and helping establish the commercial arm of Red Bull Racing.

Mark has been a member of the technical working groups within the sport’s governing body, the FIA, tasked with tackling challenges including environmental sustainability and safety, the latter being central to the sport’s regulatory environment. He spent two years working on the energy efficiency regulations adopted by Formula 1 in 2014.

His expertise covers the commercial and operational management of Formula 1 teams, and includes the sport’s regulatory, business and technology landscape. Since 1994 he has introduced some of the world’s leading technology companies to the sport, playing a key role in the digital transformation of Formula 1.

Mark’s career in Formula One commenced in 1983, working in media and communications before joining the start-up Jordan Grand Prix team in 1990. Mark joined the management board of Jordan in 1998, the team challenging for the World Championship in 1999.

In 2004 he was invited to join the Jaguar Racing organisation as it transitioned into becoming Red Bull Racing. In 2010 Mark was appointed head of the world-famous Cosworth Formula 1 engine company, supplying one-third of the teams in Formula 1 with engines and associated technologies.

Beyond Formula 1 Mark was the co-founder and owner of Status Grand Prix, competing in lower formulae and international sports cars racing.

Since 2012 Mark has focused on his Formula 1 consulting business, Performance Insights, working with a range of clients across the sport. He is also a columnist, feature writer and broadcaster for GP Racing Magazine and Autosport, part of the global Motorsport Network.

He has published three books, Grand Prix - The Last 25 Years (WH Smith, 1999) and two editions of The Business of Winning (Kogan Page, 2014) with a fully revised, 2nd edition published on 3rd October 2021. His fourth book The Future Business Formula, co- authored with business coach Adrian Stalham, will be published in May 2023. Mark also collaborated with David Coulthard on his Sunday Times Best Seller The Winning Formula (Blink Publishing, 2018). Between 2005 and 2010 Mark was a consultant to Pixar on its CARS and CARS 2 movies.

David Coulthard

David Coulthard dominated Britain's junior Formula Ford categories in 1989 and became the first ever recipient of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award for young drivers. In 1991 he fought a titanic battle with future F1 rival Rubens Barrichello for the first British Formula 3 Championship, and won the prestigious Macau F3 Grand Prix.

He joined the Williams F1 team as a test driver in 1993, and after competing in eight Grands Prix for the team in the 1994 season he became a full-time F1 driver in 1995. That year he won the Portuguese Grand Prix and finished third in the championship.

Moving to McLaren, David took his new team's first win in three seasons at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix. In all, he scored 12 of his 13 Grand Prix wins and 51 of his 62 podium finishes with McLaren. After supporting team-mate Mika Hakkinen in the drivers; championship in 1998 and '99, he finished runner-up to Michael Schumacher in 2001.

In 2005 David moved to the newly formed Red Bull Racing team. By the time he retired from driving, in 2008, he had notched up 535 points, making him the highest scoring British driver of all time. David stayed on as a consultant to Red Bull, acts as an ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and still drives for AMG Mercedes Benz in DTM – the German Touring Car Championship. He is also a key member of the award winning BBC TV F1 commentary team.

He returned to active motorsports in 2010 joining Mücke Motorsport in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters and retired at the end of 2012. Coulthard has also participated in the Race of Champions, finishing runner-up in the Drivers' Cup in 2008, and winning the competition in 2014.

Coulthard now uses his talents in the business arena from starting a number of successful businesses to ambassador roles to guest speaking.

Jenny Shipley

The Right Honourable Dame Jenny Shipley is a former Prime Minister of New Zealand and today is a Director, Advisor and Keynote Speaker with a special interest in mega trends in business, economic and social development opportunities globally. She was the 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand from December 1997 to December 1999, the first woman to hold this office and to date the only female leader of the New Zealand National Party. In the preceding 7 years she was a Senior Minister in the New Zealand Government and a driving force in the successful decade of economic and social reforms in NZ.

She retired from NZ politics in 2002 and has since established a very successful new career.

Shipley is chair of Genesis Energy, China Construction Bank NZ Senior Money International, the Advisory Board for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority transitional and an Executive member of the New Zealand China Council.

Jenny chairs Global Women NZ and gives her time to a number of causes including as Vice president of the Club of Madrid, a group of 102 former Presidents and Prime Ministers and a member of the World Women's Leaders Council. Both groups work in many countries, promoting democracy, the advancement of women and every aspect of social and economic improvement and progress. She is Patron of Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre and the New Zealand Heart Foundation’s "Go Red for Women". She has also established a Namibian Education Trust that supports a cluster of schools in Northern Namibia.

Nigel Nicholson

He moved to London Business School in 1990, where in addition to two periods as OB Chairman Nicholson has been Research Dean, a Deputy Dean and member of the Governing Body. He has had spells as a distinguished visitor at universities in the USA, Germany, Canada, Ghana and Australia, and he is a Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology, the British Academy of Management and the British Psychological Society. He has been honoured by awards from the Academy of Management in the USA, and IAAP.

He runs two of the world's most innovative leadership programmes: Proteus and High Performance People Skills for Leaders.

He is a frequent commentator on television, radio and in the press, and a sought after advisor for top teams in business. He has a special interest in sub-Saharan Africa and its business interests.

Gunter Pauli

Gunter Pauli was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in March 1956. In 1979 he graduated as “Licencié en Sciences Economiques” from Loyola's University (today University of Antwerp) in Belgium and obtained his masters in business administration from INSEAD in 1982 at Fontainebleau, France thanks to a scholarship from the Rotary International Foundation. During the time he was studying, he held the most diverse jobs in order “to sustain family, education and to save money, which permitted extensive traveling during the summer holidays". In 1978 he was elected as national president of the students’ union AIESEC.

He was the founder and Chairman of PPA Holding and of more than 10 other companies, founder and CEO of the European Service Industries Forum (ESIF),  Secretary General of the European Business Press Federation (UPEFE), founder and president of the Foundation “Mozarteum Belgicum“, Chairman and President of Ecover, and advisor to the Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo (Japan).

His entrepreneurial activities span business, culture, science, politics and the environment. Under his leadership, Ecover pioneered an ecological factory in 1992, featured on CNN Prime Time News. He founded the "Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives" (ZERI) at the United Nations University in Tokyo, and subsequently established The Global ZERI Network as a foundation, redesigning production and consumption into clusters of industries inspired by natural systems.

He is dedicated to design and implement a society and industries, which respond to people’s needs using what is locally available. His visionary approach supported by dozens of projects on the ground landed him an invitation to present his cases at the World Expo 2000 in Germany. There he constructed the largest bamboo pavilion in modern days presenting 7 breakthrough initiatives. It became the most popular pavilion with 6.4 million visitors. Unfortunately, the pavilion was destroyed after the Expo. However the original built in Manizales, Colombia still stands as a symbol for the Coffee Region.

His latest initiatives include the design of a solution for the plastic soup floating in the oceans and the creation of a protective zone with islands to avert rising sea levels. He is actively involved to ensure that the largest herd of rhinos (2,400 in Kaziranga National Park in India) will be free of poachers thanks to an intensive economic and community development program in coordination with organic tea plantations.

He has been visiting lecturer and professor at universities in on all continents, and Member of the Board of NGOs and private companies in Asia, USA and Latin America. He has advised governments, entrepreneurs and industry leaders on how to implement breakthrough innovations that permits society to better respond to the basic needs of all, starting with water, food, housing, health and energy. He works with what is locally available, focuses on the generation of value.

He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (San Francisco, USA), a creative Member of the Club of Budapest (Hungary), Member of the Club of Rome, moderated the Roundtable of Nobel Science Laureates hosted by HM King of Jordan State and obtained a Doctorate from the Italian Government in systems design. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Pécs, Hungary.

Gunter has published 20 books (written 16 - edited 4), which have been printed in +30 languages and 365 fables bringing science and emotions to children. Over 17 million copies have been distributed worldwide. One of his fables “The Strongest Tree” is available in over 100 languages. His latest  book published in April 2015 "The Blue Economy 2.0: 200 projects implemented, $4 billion invested and 3 million jobs created" is the new reality inspired the vision of his Report to the Club of Rome presented on November 2, 2009.

His next book "From Deep Ecology to Blue Economy: 21 Principles of the New Business Model" will be forthcoming in the Fall of 2016. He is father of five sons, one daughter (Adopted) and married to Katherina Bach. Fluent in seven languages and having resided on 4 continents, he is a world citizen.

Pepper de Callier

Pepper de Callier was named Best Corporate Leadership Coach—Europe 2015 by Al Media, bestselling author of three books on personal development, and columnist, Pepper de Callier, has devoted his career to understanding, counseling, and coaching leaders globally. He has been asked by The Economist to address their international conference on Human Resources in June 2016, in London, addressing the topic of leadership in the 21st century.  Formerly a partner at two of the most respected executive search and consulting firms in the world, Spencer Stuart and Heidrick & Struggles, Pepper has advised executives in Asia, North America, and Europe at Microsoft, Japan Energy, Emerson Corporation, Boeing, Ericsson, SAIC, Sempra Energy, Hitachi, Home Credit Group, Oki Semiconductor Company, General Electric, SABMiller, Telefonica O2, Sanofi, Deutsche Telekom, UniCredit Bank, Merck, Penta Investments, TV Nova, Vodafone, Ceska sporitelna, Imperial Tobacco, Johnson & Johnson, Heineken, Nokia, BXR Group, RaiffeisenBank, DHL, EuroFarms, Office Depot, Warburg Pincus, Grayling, Slovak Telekom, McKinsey & Co., and Young Presidents Organization, among many others.

Pepper is also deeply involved in the development of future leaders. He assisted in the design and launch of, as well as being a mentor in, the Odyssey Program for the Vodafone Foundation, which is a highly selective mentoring program for women executives. In addition, he assisted in the formation of Manageria, a Slovakian NGO, focusing on the development of ethical, well-rounded business leaders, and continues to serve as a Senior Advisor and program participant.

Pepper is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Zdenek Bakala Foundation, which provides scholarships to the world’s finest universities for Czech citizens and, in addition, serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Lobkowicz Collection, an organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and sharing with the public the magnificent art, artifacts and buildings returned to the Lobkowicz family in restitution after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 in Czechoslovakia. Previously, he served as President of the National Association of General Agents for the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company, Board Member of the William Elliott Education Foundation, member of the Arizona Academy and the University of Arizona Foundation and Guest Lecturer and member of the Advisory Board of the College of Business at California State University San Marcos. Pepper holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and has completed executive education programs at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and the University of Michigan Business School.

Pepper’s his first book, Common Sense Wisdom: Being Your Own Career and Life Coach, was published in 2010 and has been described as “A little book with a big message about life.” His second book, Common Sense Wisdom Volume II: The Unwritten Resume, was published in early 2012.

Javier Solana

Javier Solana’s official title is High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union. He took the post following his four-year position as Secretary General of NATO.

Javier Solana was born in Madrid in 1942. As a youth he joined the then-outlawed Spanish Socialist Workers Party, and supported the party’s opposition to NATO.

After the socialists won the 1982 elections, they reversed their NATO policy. Spain had joined the organization earlier that year.

Javier Solana is one of Spain’s cleverest political figures. Personable and smooth-talking, an able negotiator, fluent in English and French, the former Madrid University Physics professor is one of the few members of the socialist government headed by Felipe González whose image was relatively untouched by the corruption scandals that cost the González government the 1996 general elections.

Solana was a socialist member of parliament from 1977 to 1995. He served variously as Minister of Culture, Minister of Education and Science and finally Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post he held between 1992 and his appointment as NATO Secretary General in 1995. His appointment came at the same time as the Treaty’s deployment of a peace-keeping force in war-torn Bosnia.

He has negotiated numerous Treaties of Association between the European Union and various Middle Eastern and Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Colombia. Solana played a pivotal role in unifying the remainder of the former Yugoslavian federation.

Solana spent six years as a Fulbright Scholar in the United States and received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Virginia.

Chester Elton

Called the "apostle of appreciation," by the Globe and Mail, Canada's largest newspaper, and "creative and refreshing" by the New York Times, Chester Elton is co-author of several successful leadership books and is an in-demand speaker the world over.

Elton’s books have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold over half a million copies worldwide. The Carrot Principle by Simon & Schuster has been a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and 24-Carrot Manager has been called a “must read for modern-day managers” by Larry King of CNN.

In 2006, The Invisible Employee, from John Wiley & Sons also made the New York Times bestseller list. As a motivation expert, Chester has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fast Company magazine and the New York Times. He has also been a guest on CNN, Bloomberg Television, ABC’s Money Matters MSNBC and on National Public Radio. A sought-after speaker and recognition consultant, Chester is the senior vice-president of Carrot Culture with the O.C. Tanner Recognition Company. Chester has spoken to delighted audiences from Seattle to Singapore and from Toronto to Istanbul, Turkey.

In 2005 he was the highest rated speaker at the national Society for Human Resource Management annual conference (Bill Cosby was the number-two rated speaker). He serves as a recognition consultant to Fortune 100 firms such as DHL, KPMG, Wal-Mart and Avis Budget Group.

Marshall Goldsmith

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders get even better – by achieving positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a New York Times best seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman award for Best Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into 23 languages and is a listed best seller in six different countries.

The American Management Association named Dr. Goldsmith as one of 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years. Major business press acknowledgments include:

Business Week – most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development,
The Times (UK) – 50 greatest living business thinkers,
Wall Street Journal - top ten executive educators,
Forbes - five most-respected executive coaches,
Leadership Excellence – top five thinkers on leadership,
Economic Times (India) – five rajgurus of America,
Economist (UK) - most credible executive advisors in the new era of business and
Fast Company - America’s preeminent executive coach.

Dr. Goldsmith’s Ph.D. is from UCLA. He teaches executive education at Dartmouth’s Tuck School and frequently speaks at leading business schools. He is a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources (America’s top HR honor) and his work has been recognized by almost every professional organization in his field. In 2006 Alliant International University honored Marshall by naming their schools of business and organizational studies - the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management.

Marshall is one of a select few advisors who have been asked to work with over 100 major CEOs and their management teams. He is co-founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners, a network of top-level executive coaches. He served as a member of the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years. He has been a volunteer teacher for US Army Generals, Navy Admirals, Girl Scout executives, International and American Red Cross leaders – where he was a National Volunteer of the Year.

Marshall’s 31 books include: The Leader of the Future (a Business Week best-seller), Coaching for Leadership and the upcoming Succession: Are You Ready? (in the Harvard Business Memo to the CEO series). Over two hundred of his articles, interviews, columns and videos are available for viewing and sharing online (for no charge) at www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com. Visitors to this site have come from 195 countries and have viewed over 5.2 million resources.

Alexander Likhotal

Prof. Dr. Alexander Likhotal is the President of Green Cross International. He holds doctorates in Political Science from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (1975) and in History from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, USSR Academy of Sciences (1987).

In addition to an academic career as a Professor of Political Science and International Relations, he served as a European Security analyst for the Soviet Union leadership. In 1991, he was appointed Deputy Spokesman and Advisor to the President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. After Mr. Gorbachev’s resignation, Professor Likhotal served as his advisor and spokesman and worked at the Gorbachev Foundation as the International and Media Director. Having joined Green Cross International in 1996, he is actively involved in furthering sustainable development agenda.

During the wake of Gorbachev’s perestroika, being already a well-known expert in the field of European security, he received a proposal to become the chief analyst of NATO politics in the International Department of the Central Committee of the CSPU - one of the Soviet foreign policy co-ordination bodies.

He is a member of the International Council for the Earth Charter and Adviser to the Club of Madrid and has launched internationally acclaimed initiative body such as the Earth Dialogues Forum and has spearheaded Green Cross International’s global campaign for the Right to Water.

Mr Likhotal currently holds a lecture appointment at North Eastern University at Boston, where he teaches about the cultural and political implications of business management. His areas of expertise include: Developments in Russia & Eastern Europe, Russia and the New World Order, Russian Foreign Policy Today, NATO and European Security. He was born in Moscow in 1950, married, has one daughter.

Sean Chapple

Sean is no stranger to individual and team development with over two decades experience of leading teams in some of the world's most hostile environments.

Sean began his career as a Commando, successfully completing the grueling 8-month Royal Marines Commando course where the foundations of team leadership were laid. Demonstrating a capacity for leadership, he was commissioned into the Officer Corps where his skills in leading high performance were further developed. During his military career Sean has been responsible for the selection and training of the UK's elite Royal Marine Commandos and has lead Commando Troops on operations across the globe.

As a record breaking explorer Sean has been a pioneering figure in pushing the envelope of polar adventure, developing high performing teams to achieve some of the most remarkable polar journeys of recent times. Sean has planned, managed and led over twenty high risk polar expeditions with more than 700 days living beyond the Arctic and Antarctic Circles and skiing more than 6,000km earning himself the nickname 'The Ice Man™' along the way.

Sean is a successful author and has written four books about his various Polar adventures. He wrote ‘No Ordinary Tourist’ about his ski journey across Iceland from west to east coast. Sean has also released a leadership book called ‘Leading High Performance Teams’ he uses practical examples that people can learn from. His other books are ‘Polar Quest Vol I’ and ‘Polar Quest Vol II’ about his North and South Pole Expeditions.

In his speeches, Sean focuses on the leadership aspect of his polar expeditions and his ability to motivate people, even in life threatening conditions. His experiences have taught him about teamwork, leadership management and pushing yourself to the limit; all of which he can apply to a working environment.

Tarun Khanna

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School. For almost three decades, he has studied entrepreneurship as a means to social and economic development in emerging markets. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, international business and economic development to undergraduate and graduate students and senior executives.

A summary of his conceptual work on emerging markets appeared in his 2010 co-authored book, Winning in Emerging Markets.  Comparative work on entrepreneurship in China and India appeared in two books based on his personal experiences: Billions in 2008 and a sequel in 2018, Trust.  Recently, he co-edited two collections of essays, one a set of transcripts of original video interviews of iconic entrepreneurial leaders across emerging markets, Leadership to Last, the other most recently, Making Meritocracy, an inter-disciplinary exploration of the roots of meritocracy in China and India, with lessons for entrepreneurship and for much studied societal attributes like dynamism and inequality.

He was named the first director of Harvard’s university-wide Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute in the fall of 2010. The institute rapidly grew to engage over 150 faculty from across Harvard in projects embracing the pure sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, and spanning the region from Afghanistan to Myanmar. A centerpiece of the Institute’s strategy is a deep local presence, anchored through offices in New Delhi and Lahore. During the past decade, he also oversaw HBS activities across South Asia, anchored in Mumbai.

He currently teaches a popular university-wide elective course, Contemporary Developing Countries, where students work in multi-disciplinary teams to devise practical solutions to complex social problems.  The course is part of Harvard’s undergraduate general education core curriculum, and is rare in that it also attracts graduate students from across the university, engaging ‘sophomores to surgeons.’ A free online version on the edX platform, Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, has been taken by about three quarters of a million students in over 200 countries.

In 2007, he was nominated Young Global Leader (under 40) by the World Economic Forum, in 2009, elected as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, in 2016, recognized by the Academy of Management as Eminent Scholar for Lifetime Achievement in the field of International Management.  Between 2015 and 2019, he was appointed to several national commissions by the Government of India, including to chair the effort to frame policies for entrepreneurship in India.

Outside HBS, he serves on numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards in the US and India. In the past decade, this included AES, a Washington DC headquartered global power company, and India-based Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (BFIL), one of the world’s largest firms dedicated to financial inclusion for the poor.  Recently, he joined the board of inMobi, India’s first ‘unicorn,’ a global technology provider of enterprise platforms for marketers.  He is a co-founder of several entrepreneurial ventures in the developing world, spanning India, China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. In 2015, he co-founded Axilor, a vibrant incubator in Bangalore. From 2015 to 2022, he was a Trustee of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

He lives in Newton, MA, with his wife, daughter and son.

Michael Tushman

Michael Tushman holds degrees from Northeastern University (B.S.E.E.), Cornell University (M.S.), and the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. (Ph.D.). Tushman was on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, from 1976 to 1998; he was Phillip Hettleman Professor of Business from 1989 to 1998. He has also been a visiting professor at MIT (1982, 1996) and INSEAD (1995-1998).

Professor Tushman is internationally recognized for his work on the relations between technological change, executive leadership and organization adaptation, and for his work on innovation streams and organization design. He has published numerous articles and books including Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Renewal and Change (with C. O’Reilly); Navigating Change: How CEOs, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (with D. Hambrick and D. Nadler); Competing by Design: A Blueprint for Organizational Architectures (with D. Nadler); and Managing Strategic Innovation: A Collection of Readings (with P. Anderson).

Tushman teaches courses on managing organizations, managing innovation, and managing strategic change. At Columbia, he won the first W. H. Newman Award for excellence and innovation in the classroom. In 2005, Tushman was named Lecturer of the Year at CHAMPS, Chalmers University of Technology. Tushman has supervised many Ph.D. students, several who have won national awards for their dissertation research.

Tushman is an active consultant and instructor in corporate executive education programs around the world. His clients have included: J&J, BT,Hewlett Packard, Agilent, GKN, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, The World Bank, General Electric, BOC, Merck, Ericsson, Grand Met, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Xerox, GTE, ALCOA, Tele Finland, Anglo-American, IBM, Neste, Corning, and AT&T. Tushman has also worked with executive programs at California Institute of Technology, Berkeley, Nomura School of Business (Tokyo), Stanford, Chalmers University of Technology, INSEAD, Wharton, the Australian Institute of Management, and the American Electronics Association.

Professor Tushman has also served on the boards of many scholarly journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Human Relations, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Management Studies, Organizational Dynamics, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

Tushman was elected Fellow of the Academy of Management in 1996, and received the distinguished scholar awards in both the Technology and Innovation Management (1999) and Organization Management and Theory (2003) Divisions of the Academy of Management. His paper with Mary Benner won the Academy of Management Review’s best paper award in 2004.

He received Honorary Doctorate of the University of Geneva in 2008. He has also served as chairperson of the Organization and Management Theory and the Technology and Innovation Management Divisions of the Academy of Management. He was senior advisor to the Delta Consulting Group and past trustee of IBM Credit Corporation. He was awarded the Academy of Management’s Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Scholarly Contributions to Management as well as the 2013 Academy of Management Review Decade Award for his paper with Mary J. Benner, “Exploitation, Exploration and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited". He is also the recipient of the 2013 Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching.

Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa (born in 1943) is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, philanthropist and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

After graduating from vocational school, he worked as a car mechanic at a machine center from 1961 to 1965. He served in the army for two years, rose to the rank of corporal, and in 1967 was employed in the Gdansk shipyards as an electrician. During the clash in December 1970 between the workers and the government, he was one of the leaders of the shipyard workers and was briefly detained. In 1976, however, as a result of his activities as a shop steward, he was fired and had to earn his living by taking temporary jobs.

In 1978 with other activists he began to organise free non-communist trade unions and took part in many actions on the sea coast. He was kept under surveillance by the state security service and frequently detained.

In August 1980 he led the Gdansk shipyard strike which gave rise to a wave of strikes over much of the country with Walesa seen as the leader. The primary demands were for workers' rights. The authorities were forced to capitulate and to negotiate with Walesa the Gdansk Agreement of August 31, 1980, which gave the workers the right to strike and to organise their own independent union.

The Catholic Church supported the movement, and in January 1981 Walesa was cordially received by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. Walesa himself has always regarded his Catholicism as a source of strength and inspiration. In the years 1980-81 Walesa travelled to Italy, Japan, Sweden, France and Switzerland as guest of the International Labour Organisation. In September 1981 he was elected Solidarity Chairman at the First National Solidarity Congress in Gdansk.

The country's brief enjoyment of relative freedom ended in December 1981, when General Jaruzelski, fearing Soviet armed intervention among other considerations, imposed martial law, "suspended" Solidarity, arrested many of its leaders, and interned Walesa in a country house in a remote spot.

In November 1982 Wałęsa was released and reinstated at the Gdansk shipyards. Although kept under surveillance, he managed to maintain lively contact with Solidarity leaders in the underground. While martial law was lifted in July 1983, many of the restrictions were continued in civil code. In October 1983 the announcement of Walesa's Nobel prize raised the spirits of the underground movement, but the award was attacked by the government press.

The Jaruzelski regime became even more unpopular as economic conditions worsened, and it was finally forced to negotiate with Walesa and his Solidarity colleagues. The result was the holding of parliamentary elections which, although limited, led to the establishment of a non-communist government. Under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union was no longer prepared to use military force to keep communist parties in satellite states in power.

Walesa, now head of the revived Solidarity labour union, began a series of meetings with world leaders.

In April 1990 at Solidarity's second national congress, Walesa was elected chairman with 77.5% of the votes. In December 1990 in a general ballot he was elected President of the Republic of Poland. He served until defeated in the election of November 1995. Walesa still remains active in Polish politics, although he does not hold a government office. Since the end of his presidency, Wałęsa lectured on Central European history and politics at various universities and organizations. In 1996, he founded the Lech Wałęsa Institute, a think tank whose mission is to support democracy and local governments in Poland and throughout the world.

Apart from his 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, Wałęsa has received many other international distinctions and awards. He has been named "Man of the Year" by Time (1981), the Financial Times (1980) and The Observer (1980). He was the first recipient of the Liberty Medal, on 4 July 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that same year received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is the only Pole to have addressed a joint meeting of the United States Congress in 1989.

Walesa has been granted many honorary degrees from universities, including Harvard University and the University of Paris. Other honors include the Medal of Freedom (Philadelphia, U.S.A.); the Award of Free World (Norway); and the European Award of Human Rights.

Wałęsa has written three books: Droga nadziei (The Road of Hope, 1987), Droga do wolności (The Road to Freedom, 1991), and Wszystko, co robię, robię dla Polski (All That I Do, I Do for Poland, 1995).

Gerry Robinson

Sir Gerrard Jude “Gerry” Robinson (born 1948) is an Irish-born British businessman, the ninth of ten children. He is the former non-executive Chairman of Allied Domecq and the ex-Chairman/Chief Executive of Granada.

After leaving Ireland in his early teens, he briefly trained to become a Catholic priest at St Mary’s College in Castlehead. He began a career in accounting in 1965 working as a clerk with Matchbox Toys. After achieving his Chief Management Accountant qualification, he was promoted to become a chief accountant at a Lesney factory in east London.

In 1974, he left Matchbox to work for Lex Vehicle Leasing as a management accountant. He then rose through the company before being appointed finance director. In 1980, he joined the UK franchise of Coca Cola, owned at that time by Grand Metropolitan. In 1983 he was appointed managing director of Grand Metropolitan’s international services division. In 1987 he led a £163m management buyout of the loss-making contract services and catering division which was later renamed Compass Group.

He then joined Granada as chief executive in 1991 and notably fired Granada’s highly respected chairman, David Plowright in 1992. (Comedian John Cleese labelled Robinson “an upstart caterer”).

He steered the company through various mergers, and hostile takeovers including London Weekend Television (1993), the Forte Hotels chain (1996) and an unsuccessful attempt at acquiring Rentokil Initial in 2005.

Robinson also served as chairman of the Arts Council England for six years from 1998; in which capacity he was on one occasion one of the many victims of a spoof by British comedian Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen).

He has divorced and remarried, and has a total of 4 children. He lives in Holland Park, West London, and has a vacation home near the village of Raphoe in Donegal. He established a botanical garden with a narrow gauge railway – the Difflin Lake Railway – which is open to the public.

He was knighted in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List.

In January 2007 he presented a three-part series Can Gerry Robinson Fix the NHS? Following on from the BBC series I’ll Show Them Who’s Boss, this Open University-produced programme followed Robinson as he attempted to reduce waiting lists at Rotherham General Hospital.

 

Robin Oakley

Robin Oakley OBE is CNN’s European political editor based in London and is one of the leading political commentators among international journalists today.

With almost 40 years of experience in political journalism, Oakley provides analysis on a full range of European issues and political events for CNN’s international audience. In addition to reporting on the keynote political events in Europe, including G8, EU and NATO summits and national referendums and elections, Oakley delivers insight into the international ramifications of specific European political events and developments.

Before taking up his CNN post in September 2000, Oakley was political editor of the BBC for eight years, reporting for a wide range of TV and radio programmes, covering international summits and British prime ministerial trips around the world, as well as the full range of British domestic politics.

In 2004 he reported extensively on the ten countries which then became members of the EU.

In 2006 Oakley reported extensively on European concerns like immigration, EU enlargement and counter-terrorism. The previous year he was involved in CNN’s extensive coverage of the British General Election and the contest in Germany which brought Angela Merkel to power as Chancellor.

In 2007 Oakley’s expertise included the French Presidential election, the departure from Downing Street of Tony Blair and the culmination of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Henry Mintzberg

After receiving his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal (1961), Henry worked in Operational Research at the Canadian National Railways, and then received a masters and doctorate from the MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston. In 1968, Henry Mintzberg returned to McGill, where he joined what is now called the Desautels Faculty of Management. He currently holds the Cleghorn Professorship of Management Studies, having been half-time since the mid 1980’s, and has been a visiting professor at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, London Business School in the U.K., Insead in France, and H.E.C. in Montreal.

He devotes himself largely to writing and research, over the years especially about managerial work, strategy formation, and forms of organizing. In 2004, Mintzberg published Managers not MBAs, in 2007 Tracking Strategies, in 2013 Simply Managing, and in 2015 Rebalancing Society, the implications of which are now his central focus. He is also completing a monograph entitled Managing the Myths of Health Care.

He has worked for much of the past two decades, in collaboration with colleagues from Canada, England, France, India, Japan, and now China and Brazil, on developing new approaches to management education and development. Henry is teaching in both The International Masters in Practicing Management (it has been running since 1996) and the International Masters for Health Leadership (since 2006). Both are rather novel ways to help managers learn from their own experience. In 2007, CoachingOurselves.com was developed, which brings all these efforts to natural fruition, by enabling small groups of practicing managers to develop themselves and their organizations in their own workplace. A GROOC (MOOC for groups) called Social Learning for Social Impact will appear on edX in September 2015.

In all, he has published about 170 articles and 17 books. Honors have included election as an Officer of the Order of Canada and of l'Ordre national du Quebec, selection as Distinguished Scholar for the year 2000 by the Academy of Management, and two McKinsey prizes for articles in the Harvard Business Review.

Michelle Mone

Michelle Mone OBE, born 1971, is the co-owner of MJM International and founder of Ultimo, the UK’s leading designer lingerie brand. Honoured by the Queen with an OBE for her contribution to business, Michelle is regularly listed as one of the UK’s top female entrepreneurs and has built a hugely successful career on an incredibly simple concept: giving today’s women what they want.

Entrepreneurial spirit was prevalent from an early age in Michelle, who grew up in the east end of Glasgow. Michelle left school at 15 with no qualifications to find full-time employment, after her father was struck down by an illness leaving him confined to a wheelchair. To support her family Michelle took on a job at Labatt Brewers’ and quickly climbed the ranks from office junior; at just 22years old Michelle was appointed as Head of Sales and Marketing for Scotland.

But it was in 1996 when her idea for Ultimo was born. Whilst attending a dinner dance with her husband Michael, Michelle was wearing a very uncomfortable cleavage enhancing bra and, as a result, had a ‘light bulb’ moment; Michelle decided to invent a bra that was more comfortable, more innovative, more attractive and more cleavage enhancing than any other bra on the market. MJM International was set up in November 1996.

Since launching the business Michelle has established herself as one of Scotland’s biggest exports; in 2000 Ultimo was catapulted into the media limelight when Hollywood actress Julia Roberts wore an Ultimo plunge-bra to enhance her cleavage in Erin Brockovich. Later that year Michelle won the coveted ‘World Young Business Achiever Award’ at the Epcot Centre, Florida, and then ‘Business Woman of the Year’ at the Corporate Elite Awards in London.

In 2001 Prince Charles invited Michelle to join the Board of Directors for The Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust and more recently his Board of Main Council, confirming her status as one of the UK’s leading female entrepreneurs. Michelle also won ‘Best Newcomer’ at the British Apparel Export Awards, presented by HRH the Princess Royal, adding to her long list of awards, accolades and recognitions.

In October 2005 Michelle attended a speaking engagement with former US president Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, and went on to support the Sultan of Oman in setting up women’s enterprise in the Middle East. Michelle has since become a high-profile guest at speaking engagements and corporate events all over the world.

Over the years Michelle’s business has gone from strength-to-strength, developing beyond the original umbrella of Ultimo to encompass Ultimo D-G Cup, Ultimo Black Label, Ultimo Shapewear, Ultimo Swimwear and partner lines including Diamond Boutique for Tesco, Adore Moi for Debenhams.

As well as designing fashion lingerie, Ultimo boasts eight worldwide patented inventions including the Ultimo ‘Miracle’ backless body. In addition to its jointly owned brands, MJM International currently supplies Tesco, Debenhams, ASDA, Next, Figleaves and Asos.com, along with a number of independent lingerie stores throughout Europe.

In 2012, after 3 years of intensive research Michelle expanded her portfolio and launched into the world of beauty with a range of tanning products – Utan.

Michelle is divorced and lives on the outskirts of Glasgow with her three children. Michelle has achieved a remarkable level of success to date, juggling the demands of her business, together with motherhood, but – in her own words – ‘this is only the beginning’.

John Kotter

Dr. John P. Kotter (born 1947) is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School, a New York Times best-selling author, the chairman of Kotter International (a management consulting firm based in Seattle and Boston), and a well-known thought leader in the fields of business, leadership, and change.

Professor Kotter’s MIT and Harvard education laid the foundation for his life-long passion for educating, motivating and helping people. He became a member of the Harvard Business School faculty in 1972. By 1980, at the age of 33, Kotter was given tenure and a full Professorship—the youngest person ever to have received that award at the Business School.

Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter is widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority on leadership and change. His is the premier voice on how the best organizations actually “do” change.

John Kotter’s international bestseller Leading Change—which outlined an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations—has become the change bible for managers around the world. Our Iceberg Is Melting, the New York Times bestseller, puts the eight-step process within an allegory, making it accessible to the broad range of people needed to effect major organizational transformations. In October 2001, Business Week magazine rated Kotter the #1 “leadership guru” in America based on a survey they conducted of 504 enterprises.

Professor Kotter is the author of eighteen books, a collection that has given him more honors and awards than any other writer on the topics of leadership and change. In addition to Buy In (2010), A Sense of Urgency (2008), Our Iceberg Is Melting (2006), and Leading Change (1996), he is the author of The Heart of Change (2002), John P. Kotter on What leaders Really Do (1999), Matsushita Leadership (1997), The New Rules (1995), Corporate Culture and Performance (1992), A Force for Change (1990), The Leadership Factor (1988), Power and Influence (1985), The General Managers (1982), and five other books published in the 1970s. Professor Kotter’s books have been printed in over 120 foreign language editions, and total sales exceed two million copies.

John Kotter’s articles in The Harvard Business Review over the past twenty years have sold more reprints than any of the hundreds of distinguished authors who have written for that publication during the same time period. His books are in the top 1% of sales from Amazon.com.

He has created three executive videos; one on “Leadership” (1991), another on “Corporate Culture” (1993), a third on “Succeeding in a Changing World” (2007) and an educational CD-ROM, “Realizing Change” (1998) based on the Leading Change book.

Professor Kotter’s honors include an Exxon Award for Innovation in Graduate Business School Curriculum Design, and a Johnson, Smith & Knisely Award for New Perspectives in Business Leadership. In 1996, Professor Kotter’s Leading Change was named the #1 management book of the year by Management General. In 1998, his Matsushita Leadership won first place in the Financial Times, Booz-Allen Global Business Book Competition for biography/autobiography. In 2003, a video version of a story from his book, The Heart of Change won a Telly Award. In 2006, Kotter received the prestigious McFeely Award for “outstanding contributions to leadership and management development.” In 2007, his video “Succeeding in a Changing World” was named best video training product of the year by Training Media Review and also won a Telly Award.

Professor Kotter talks to groups with one and only one goal: to motivate action that gets better results.

John Kotter lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Ashland, New Hampshire.

Fred Kofman

Fred Kofman is Axialent’s co-founder and President. An extraordinary teacher, Fred awakens people to act with greater responsibility, integrity and courage; his ideas combine philosophical depth with practical applicability. He has created and taught programs in leadership, personal mastery, team learning, organizational effectiveness and coaching for more than 15,000 participants. His clients include industry leaders such as Microsoft, Shell, Yahoo! and General Motors.

Fred holds a PhD in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was distinguished as outstanding instructor. He worked as an assistant professor of Management Accounting and Control Systems at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he received the “Teacher of the Year” award in 1992. At MIT, he was also a senior researcher at the Organizational Learning Center, where he worked with Peter Senge. He is also a founding member of the Free Cities Institute at the University Francisco Marroquin (2011), which promotes the free cities which are free - market version of the charter cities , to innovate the forms of government of the future. He is also a board member of the Hispanic Mises Institute seeks to promote the Austrian school and libertarianism among the Spanish - speaking audience following the line of the Mises Institute in Alabama.

He is now a "influencer" of LinkedIn and one of the most widely read columnists.

Fred has led seminars in the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia and presented his research at MIT’s Sloan School, Harvard University’s Economic Department, Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of California at Los Angeles and Berkeley, The London School of Economics, the University of Tel Aviv, Universidad de Barcelona, Nanyang Technological Institute of Singapore, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires, and Universidad Francisco Marroquin. He also teaches in Naropa University and the University of Notre Dame’s Executive MBA and non-degree executive education programs.

His work has appeared in several publications including The Fifth Discipline Field Book, The Journal of Organizational Dynamics, Management Science and Econometrica. He is the author of the trilogy Metamanagement (Granica, 2001) and the audio program Conscious Business (Sounds True, 2002).

Beyond his work, Fred enjoys traveling and outdoor activities having run nine marathons, climbed Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya, heli-skied in the Bugaboos and the Himalayas, scuba-dived in the Caribbean, and trekked for several weeks in Nepal and Thailand.

Peter Keen

Peter Keen works globally as a professor, advisor to senior management in business and government organizations, author, executive educator and public speaker.

Keen has held faculty positions at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Fordham, Wharton and The London Business School.

He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Marist College and Abo Akademi University (Finland) for his career-long "pioneering contributions and key theory work in the interface between information technology, management theory and the managerial use of information systems."

Peter Keen was named as one of the top 100 business "gurus" in the world - thought leaders with impact - in a 2003 survey. This ranking is based on objective measures of citations of his work in the scholarly literature (influence as a thought leader), Google search engine "hits" on his name (public impact and interest), and media references on Lexis/Nexus (newsworthiness). He is also regularly ranked in the top ten consultants in the world in the IT field, but the business guru rating indicates the extent to which his work is more general than just IT.

Keen is first of all a thinker, teacher and adviser in the area of business innovation, with IT as a core enabler, but only that. His strengths in IT add to his other strengths in organization (especially competing via business processes), international business, and corporate finance. Peter's consulting focuses on helping private and public sector organizations make the management difference in exploiting technology and process capabilities to build a sustainable innovation advantage. His executive education programs are centered on leadership in practice rather than theory and good intentions, through an "imperatives" and "beachhead" approach to accelerating change and reducing its risks.

Peter Keen is a prolific writer and the author of close to 30 books, including Shaping the Future: Business Design through Information Technology, The Process Edge, The eProcess Edge, Every Manager's Guide to IT, Trust by Design, The Freedom Economy, Competing in Time, and Decision Support Systems: an Organizational Perspective. Mr. Keen's view on business effectiveness and innovation is that they rest on a fusion of people, process, technology and economics; the role of leadership is to ensure that fusion.

A major area of his current research and consulting centers on the opportunities and challenges of mobile technology: building the business models for a new generation of mobile value services, knowledge mobilization as organizational advantage, mobile supply chain management, and the use of mobile for social and economic development.

Peter Keen regards himself as a "voyager" between many worlds, a translator and an integrator. He is a European who lives in the United States, holds a senior professorship position in Europe and works across the world bringing insights and experiences from and to each of the regions and nations he works in. Peter is a consultant with a distinguished academic track record, and is actively involved in both the public and private sectors.

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland was born in Oslo, Norway, on 20 April 1939.

A medical doctor and Master of Public Health (MPH), Gro Harlem Brundtland spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system. For more than 20 years she was in public office, 10 of them as Prime Minister. In the 1980s she gained international recognition, championing the principle of sustainable development as the chair of the World Commission of Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).

Dr Brundtland’s first choice of career was neither environmentalist nor politician, but to become a doctor like her father. When Gro Harlem was 10 years old, the family moved to the United States where her father had been awarded a Rockefeller scholarship. The seeds of internationalism were sown in the young Gro.

Dr Brundtland inherited another passion from her father - political activism. At the age of seven, she was enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement in its children’s section and has been a member ever since, leading the Labour Party to election victory three times.

The sense of global awareness that began in her childhood developed when, as a young mother and newly qualified doctor, Gro Harlem Brundtland won a scholarship to the Harvard School of Public Health. Here, working alongside distinguished public health experts, Dr Brundtland’s vision of health extending beyond the confines of the medical world into environment issues and human development began to take shape.

Returning to Oslo and the Ministry of Health in 1965, the next nine years were to be very hectic for Dr Brundtland. At the Ministry she worked on children’s health issues including breastfeeding, cancer prevention and other diseases. She worked in the children’s department of the National Hospital and Oslo City Hospital and became Director of Health Services for Oslo’s schoolchildren. All this at the same time as bringing up her own family and representing Norway in international conferences.

Such energy, enthusiasm and commitment brought an unexpected change of career. In 1974, Dr Brundtland was offered the job of Minister of the Environment. At first, believing she did not have enough experience of environmental issues, she was reluctant to accept the post. But her conviction of the link between health and the environment changed her mind.

During the 1970s she acquired international recognition in environmental circles and a political reputation at home. In 1981, at the age of 41, she was appointed Prime Minister for the first time. Gro Harlem Brundtland was the youngest person and the first woman ever to hold the office of Prime Minister in Norway. With two other periods as Prime Minister from 1986-1989 and 1990-1996, Dr Brundtland was Head of Government for more than 10 years.

Throughout her political career, Dr Brundtland has developed a growing concern for issues of global significance. In 1983 the then United Nations Secretary-General invited her to establish and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development. The Commission, which is best known for developing the broad political concept of sustainable development, published its report Our Common Future in April 1987.

The Commission’s recommendations led to the Earth Summit - the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Dr Brundtland finally stepped down as Prime Minister in October 1996. In her successful bid to become Director-General of the World Health Organization her many skills as doctor, politician, activist and manager have come together.

The World Health Assembly elected her for the position of Director-General of the World Health Organization on 13 May 1998.

In her acceptance speech for the World Health Assembly, Dr Brundtland said: “What is our Key mission? I see WHO’s role as being the moral voice and the technical leader in improving health of the people of the world. Ready and able to give advice on the key issues that can unleash development and alleviate suffering. I see our purpose to be combating disease and ill-health - promoting sustainable and equitable health systems in all countries”.

She served as the Director General of the UN World Health Organization until 2003 and is now a Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.

In 2007, Bruntlandt was working for Pepsi as a consultant.

In 2008 she became the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture.

Gro Harlem Brundtland is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

Brundtland is also a member of the Club of Madrid, an independent organization of former leaders of democratic states, which works to strengthen democratic governance and leadership.

Brundtland serves as Deputy Chair of The Elders, a group of world leaders launched in 2007.

In 2013, Brundtland attended World Women Economics Forum held in South Korea.

In 2014 she became the first recipient of the Tang Prize in Sustainable Development.

Sahar Hashemi

In 1995 Sahar Hashemi and her brother Bobby founded Coffee Republic, the UK’s first coffee bar chain. Within 5 years they built Coffee Republic into one of the UK’s most recognized high street brands with 110 bars and turnover of £30m.

Hashemi was a lawyer and her brother was an investment banker. They gave up their highly paid professional jobs and staked everything on a dream. They made Coffee Republic one of the main players in the ‘coffee revolution’ that transformed a nation of tea drinkers to one obsessed with ‘triple grande vanilla skinny lattes.’ How they came to build a nationwide coffee chain is a fascinating and inspirational tale of the ups and downs of following your dream.

Hashemi left the day-to-day management of Coffee Republic in 2001 and wrote a book about her journey of entrepreneurship, Anyone Can Do It - Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table. Anyone Can Do It has become the 2nd highest selling book ever published in the UK on entrepreneurship after Richard Branson’s book - according to Nielsen Bookscan. Hashemi believes that if she can make it as an entrepreneur, anyone can make it.

In 2005, she launched her new business Skinny Candy, a brand of sugar free confectionary, low-fat sweets and chocolates. Skinny Candy was sold to confectionery conglomerate Glisten PLC in 2007.

Her most recent book, Switched On, published in 2010, focuses on 8 habits that foster a more entrepreneurial mindset for employees.  It is based on her experience of the transformation in culture when a small entrepreneurial company becomes big and successful, when the obvious and easy entrepreneurial habits are often forgotten as bureaucracy take over.

In 2011 Sahar was nominated by Director magazine as one of its Top 10 Original Thinkers. The magazine praised her view that “Entrepreneurially minded talent shouldn’t have to leave large corporations in order to achieve fulfillment. Entrepreneurial behaviour, including ideas like bootstrapping, prototyping and celebrating failure, can help turn stuffy corporations into creative environments. They can also transform automatons into valued, engaged employees”.

In 2011 she was invited to join the Entrepreneurs Forum set up by UK Business Secretary Vince Cable to give informal personal advice to the government on enterprise policies.

In June 2012 Sahar was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity.

She was also awarded: Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Top 10 original thinkers by Director Magazine, ‘Pioneer to the Life of the Nation’ by her Majesty The Queen, 100 most influential women in Britain by Daily Mail, one of the 35 top women in British business by Management Today and 20 most powerful women in Britain by Independent on Sunday, Top 5 in a Shell Livewire survey of inspirational role models.

Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. His music awards include Ivor Novellos, Brits and Grammies.

Geldof is widely recognised for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa. In 1984 he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. They went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year and the Live 8 concerts in 2005. Geldof currently serves as an adviser to the ONE Campaign, founded by fellow Irishman Bono. A single father, Geldof has also been outspoken for the fathers' rights movement.

Geldof was appointed an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, and is a recipient of the Man of Peace title which recognises individuals who have made "an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace", among numerous other awards and nominations. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.

Andy Freire

Andy Freire is Axialent's co-founder and CEO. Entrepreneur in the business and social domains, after working at Procter & Gamble, he founded and led Officenet, a company that revolutionized the industry of distribution (retail) of office supplies in Latin America growing from one to almost a thousand employees in a 4 year span.

When he was 18, he created the Fundacion Iniciativa, for the promotion of leadership among the Latin American youth. He collaborates weekly with CNN in Spanish as "Expert Entrepreneur." He was distinguished by the World Economic Forum as "Global Leader for Tomorrow", by the Endeavor Foundation as "Latin American Entrepreneur of the Year" and he was one of two finalists who received awards as "World Young Business Achiever" in the Philippines in 2002.

Andy has a Licensure in Economics magna cum laude from the University of San Andres in Buenos Aires, Argentina and an OPM from the Harvard Business School. His several projects got funded by world recognized financial institutions such as GE Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, George Soros, KKR, Santander Bank, Bank of America, Warburg Pincus, Louis Vuitton, GP Investimentos and Tommy Lee Putnam.

Andy has participated as a motivational speaker at several events in Europe (such as the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain), Asia (such as The Manila's Entrepreneurial Forum), Latin America (such as the Interamerican Development Bank Annual Conference in Santiago, Chile), and the US (such as The Economist Annual Conference).

Chris Patten

Christopher Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes CH PC (born 12 May 1944) is a British public servant. He is a former chairman of the BBC Trust and serves as Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Patten began his career in the Conservative Party (UK), serving as Member of Parliament for Bath and joining the cabinet.

Patten served as Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1986 to 1989. In 1989 he was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment.

In July 1992, he became the 28th and the last Governor of Hong Kong until its transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China on 30 June 1997. He was given an official Chinese name, Pang Ding-hong (Chinese: 彭定康), a name with an etymology based on the words "stability" and "health". Unlike most previous Hong Kong Governors, he was not a career diplomat from the UK Foreign Office although he was not the first former MP to become a Governor of Hong Kong. After the handover ceremony he left Hong Kong, together with Prince Charles, on board the British royal yacht, HMY Britannia. Patten was noted to be in tears throughout the day, notably after his speech at Tamar.

From 1998 to 1999, he chaired the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, better known as the Patten Commission, which had been established in 1998 as part of the Belfast Agreement.

In 1999, he was appointed as one of the United Kingdom's two members to the European Commission as Commissioner for External Relations.

Patten was Chancellor of  Newcastle University from 1999 to 2009, and was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003.

On the advice of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government led by Prime Minister David Cameron Lord Patten of Barnes was appointed by the Queen-in-Council as Chairman of the BBC Trust, and he took office on 1 May 2011. He resigned on 6 May 2014.

In the 1998 New Year Honours, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Companion of Honour.