Humanities & Social Sciences

Esteemed speakers contributing their insights into human culture, behavior, and societal development

Jennifer Novak

Jennifer Novak

Jennifer Novak is a Senior Manager - AI Adoption & Change at Myriad360, where she supports large-scale Microsoft 365 and AI enablement initiatives. She has partnered with dozens of organizations to drive measurable adoption through readiness assessments, stakeholder engagement, training strategy, and practical change planning that aligns with technical delivery. Jennifer is based in Maryland.

Jennifer Novak is a Senior Manager - AI Adoption & Change at Myriad360, where she supports large-scale Microsoft 365 and AI enablement initiatives. She has partnered with dozens of organizations to drive measurable adoption through readiness assessme... Show more

Ewa Hutmacher

Ewa Hutmacher

Ewa Hutmacher works with CEOs and executive teams in situations where direction is still forming and decisions need to hold. Her work focuses on strategy facilitation, organizational identity, culture and leadership behavior, and on how decisions are made in everyday practice.

Ewa works across industries where strategy, culture and leadership meet — surfacing what is often left unsaid and helping teams work through the tensions that shape direction. She contributes to conversations on leadership behavior, culture and decision-making in talks and panel discussions.

Ewa Hutmacher works with CEOs and executive teams in situations where direction is still forming and decisions need to hold. Her work focuses on strategy facilitation, organizational identity, culture and leadership behavior, and on how decisions are... Show more

Franco Vela

Franco Vela

GDG Nuremberg Organizer

I've worked at a multiple startups as Mobile Software Engineer specialized in building apps with Flutter. Additionally I've built and published multiple apps of my own. I am also organizer of the Google Developer Group Nuremberg.

GDG Nuremberg Organizer I've worked at a multiple startups as Mobile Software Engineer specialized in building apps with Flutter. Additionally I've built and published multiple apps of my own. I am also organizer of the Google Developer Group Nure... Show more

Lianna Adams

Lianna Adams

Lianna Adams is a Human-Centered AI Strategist, Digital Dignity Advocate, and Cognitive Culture Builder recognised by ForbesWeb3, Animoca Brands, and Open Campus as a 2024 Social Impact & Ethics leader — and named one of the Top 10 Rising Women in Crypto 2023.

She has spoken at the WEF in Davos 2024, COP28, TEDx Youth, NFTNYC (four consecutive years), the World Web3.0 & AI Summit, EmpowHer AI, and Web3 Amsterdam, among others.

Her work centres on one urgent question: what do we preserve of ourselves as artificial intelligence transforms how we think, create, and relate? Through keynotes, workshops, and consulting, she helps organisations and communities build cultures where technology amplifies human capability — without eroding cognitive autonomy, creative identity, or dignity.

She is the creator of the Human-AI Cognitive Toolkit — nine science-backed tools for cognitive wellness in an AI-saturated world — and host of The Human Strata, a podcast and newsletter exploring the human layer in the age of AI. She hosts the Wirex Podcast and has convened 80,000+ community participants across digital events since 2021.

Lianna is also the founder of the Digital Dignity Initiative, leads the annual #16Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, and has served as a Non-Executive Director at Mental Health Spaces Collective.

She is available for keynotes, panels, moderation, fireside chats, and workshops.

Lianna Adams is a Human-Centered AI Strategist, Digital Dignity Advocate, and Cognitive Culture Builder recognised by ForbesWeb3, Animoca Brands, and Open Campus as a 2024 Social Impact & Ethics leader — and named one of the Top 10 Rising Women in Cr... Show more

Riz Vazir

Riz Vazir

Riz Vazir has a deep background in tech and healthcare consulting, most recently as Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft. He founded Scroll By Choice to address a health crisis caused as collateral damage from the unrestricted monetization of human attention using sophisticated technology. His mission is to equip kids & adults to thrive with technology. Without this, employers face diminished human capital, schools will see declining academic performance, and society will experience increased loneliness. Riz is a certified change management professional with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Riz Vazir has a deep background in tech and healthcare consulting, most recently as Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft. He founded Scroll By Choice to address a health crisis caused as collateral damage from the unrestricted monetization of h... Show more

Daniel Camilo Ramirez Martinez

Daniel Camilo Ramirez Martinez

Daniel Camilo Ramírez Martínez es Ingeniero de Sistemas con más de 12 años de experiencia liderando tecnología en el sector público, la salud y la cooperación internacional en Colombia. Fue Jefe de la Oficina TIC y Transformación Digital (CIO) y Oficial de Seguridad de la Información (CISO) de la Alcaldía de Fusagasugá, Director TIC de Cafesalud EPS, Líder TIC del Centro Agroecológico y Empresarial del SENA y Coordinador TIC de la Clínica Nogales y el Policlínico del Olaya. Ha trabajado con la ADRES, la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, el Ministerio del Trabajo, la Corte Constitucional, la Cooperación Alemana (GIZ) y la Agencia Presidencial de Cooperación Internacional (APC-Colombia) en infraestructura, nube, seguridad de la información, recuperación ante desastres y desarrollo de software.

Es Especialista en Gestión de Sistemas de Información Gerencial, Especialista en Análisis de Datos y Especialista en Psicopedagogía y Docencia, Especialista en Gestión y Seguridad de Bases de Datos, Tecnólogo en Formulación de Proyectos y candidato a Magíster en Transformación de Conflictos y Construcción de Paz. Cuenta con la certificación ISO/IEC 27001:2022 y la acreditación Cybersecurity Certified Expert. Es docente universitario de Seguridad Informática, Ciencia de Datos e Ingeniería de Software en la Universidad de Cundinamarca y la Universidad INCCA de Colombia, y organiza el FLISOL Fusagasugá desde 2020.

Daniel Camilo Ramírez Martínez es Ingeniero de Sistemas con más de 12 años de experiencia liderando tecnología en el sector público, la salud y la cooperación internacional en Colombia. Fue Jefe de la Oficina TIC y Transformación Digital (CIO) y Ofic... Show more

Ewelina Kurasz

Ewelina Kurasz

Senior Business-Systems Analyst & Product Owner. Speaker at international conferences. I truly believe that communication matters.
When I'm not at work, you can find me at IT conferences, meetup’s, volunteering somewhere, or spot me when enjoying nature in the middle of mountains or forests.
I'm usually the one, who will challenge your idea to make it bulletproof!

Senior Business-Systems Analyst & Product Owner. Speaker at international conferences. I truly believe that communication matters. When I'm not at work, you can find me at IT conferences, meetup’s, volunteering somewhere, or spot me when enjoying n... Show more

Win McCormack

Win McCormack

Win McCormack is an American editor, publisher, author, and political activist who has spent more than forty years contributing to literature, journalism, and public affairs. As the founder and editor-in-chief of Tin House and the owner of The New Republic, he has played an important role in supporting long-form journalism, literary publishing, and political commentary. His career reflects a continuing commitment to editorial independence and the preservation of influential media institutions.

Born as Winthrop Laflin McCormack, he grew up in a family associated with public service, law, and finance. His father served in military intelligence during World War II and later held a senior position at the State Department. His mother's family was connected to the founding of a major financial institution in Chicago. He attended Phillips Academy before studying government at Harvard College. During his educational years, he participated in an American Field Service exchange program in Indonesia, an experience that broadened his perspective. After graduation, he worked in teaching and social services before earning an MFA in creative writing at the University of Oregon.

McCormack's path into publishing began during graduate school. After taking part in a congressional campaign, he invested in Oregon Times magazine and later transformed it into Oregon Magazine. From 1976 to 1988, he served as editor, helping the publication gain recognition for investigative reporting and detailed feature journalism. He also became co-owner and treasurer of MediAmerica, Inc., which published several regional magazines. His early publishing activities included helping launch Mother Jones magazine and contributing to several specialized publications.

In the late 1990s, Win established Tin House, a literary magazine that became known for publishing both emerging and established writers. The creation of Tin House Books in 2005 expanded its presence in the publishing industry. The Tin House Summer Workshop, launched in 2003, offered writers a place to study and collaborate. Although the magazine ceased its quarterly print edition in 2019, the broader organization remains active through books, workshops, and related programs.

In 2016, McCormack acquired The New Republic and became its editor-in-chief. He worked to reinforce the publication's focus on political and cultural analysis while guiding it through a period of transition. He also directed an extensive investigation into the Rajneesh movement in Oregon, which later became the basis for The Rajneesh Chronicles. His published works also include You Don't Know Me: A Citizen's Guide to Republican Family Values.

Beyond publishing, he has remained involved in philanthropy and progressive political causes, including co-founding the Liberty Hill Foundation and serving on the boards of organizations focused on education, public policy, and the humanities. Today, Win McCormack continues to influence publishing and public life through the institutions, projects, and initiatives he has helped shape.

Win McCormack is an American editor, publisher, author, and political activist who has spent more than forty years contributing to literature, journalism, and public affairs. As the founder and editor-in-chief of Tin House and the owner of The New Re... Show more

Nicolas Guillot

Nicolas Guillot

Hi! I’m Nicolas, a developer with over 25 years of experience, now working as a freelance mobile app developer.

My journey has taken me from programming MS-DOS games to building electronic test systems for the oil industry, before transitioning to mobile development in 2017.

Everything changed during an eco-volunteering mission in French Polynesia, where I monitored sea turtles. This experience inspired *“We Spot Turtles!”*, a side project that has since become one of my main activities as a freelancer.

In 2022, an unexpected encounter with an Australian helped propel the project onto the international stage, eventually leading to it being featured by Google in a global campaign.

Today, I build this solution using Flutter, co-organize the Flutter Nantes meetup, and aim to expand the impact of this application dedicated to sea turtle conservation worldwide.

Hi! I’m Nicolas, a developer with over 25 years of experience, now working as a freelance mobile app developer. My journey has taken me from programming MS-DOS games to building electronic test systems for the oil industry, before transitioning to... Show more

Caleb Crable

Caleb Crable

Caleb is a Principal AI Red Team Engineer at Ethos Life, a publicly traded life insurance company, where he attacks production AI deployments and the identity infrastructure underneath them. Before Ethos he spent four years on the red team at BILL, running authorized engagements against critical financial infrastructure and the company's AI support platform, with a focus on prompt injection, tool abuse, and credential exposure in LLM pipelines.

Earlier in his career Caleb spent three years with Cylance Professional Services delivering full-scope red team engagements for clients in every business sector. Before consulting he was a senior malware analyst at Cylance and The Media Trust, doing deep file analysis, reverse engineering, and incident reconstruction, and serving as a research associate on the whitepaper "Influence Sketching: Finding Influential Samples in Large-Scale Regressions." With over 14 years in offensive security, he brings a practitioner's instinct to every layer of the stack, from physical entry and social engineering to AI red teaming and ML research.

Caleb is a Principal AI Red Team Engineer at Ethos Life, a publicly traded life insurance company, where he attacks production AI deployments and the identity infrastructure underneath them. Before Ethos he spent four years on the red team at BILL, r... Show more

Micaela Dixon

Micaela Dixon

Micaela Dixon is a Senior Product Designer for AI & Growth at Picsart. As an AI Product Designer, Micaela is skilled in navigating challenges like data collection, model training and ensuring transparency in user interactions through UX. Advocating for ethical AI design, she has a focus on building inclusive technology that brings positive societal impact. She defined "AI Growth Design" as a discipline, guest lectures at Goldsmiths and City, University of London, and speaks internationally on designing trust into AI products.

Micaela Dixon is a Senior Product Designer for AI & Growth at Picsart. As an AI Product Designer, Micaela is skilled in navigating challenges like data collection, model training and ensuring transparency in user interactions through UX. Advocating f... Show more

Tajah M. Gross, PhD

Tajah M. Gross, PhD

Dr. Tajah M. Gross is Founder & CEO of Ethilect, an AI governance, risk, and decision intelligence firm helping organizations confront the hidden human risks inside artificial intelligence systems. A recognized voice in responsible AI, escalation architecture, and operational oversight, she is known for translating complex AI risk into practical governance strategies leaders can actually use.

Her expertise spans agentic AI, autonomous decision systems, human oversight design, AI governance, and enterprise risk visibility. Through her signature frameworks, Question Everything and ReasonGate, Dr. Gross challenges organizations to rethink how AI decisions are monitored, escalated, interrupted, and trusted at scale.

Blending executive strategy with real-world implementation, she helps institutions design AI systems that remain observable, accountable, and human-centered under pressure—not just efficient. Dr. Gross has delivered high-impact sessions for nationally recognized venues including AI in the New Era, Nashville Microsoft Community Day, UN Blockchain Week, North Carolina A&T University, and Morgan State University.

Dr. Tajah M. Gross is Founder & CEO of Ethilect, an AI governance, risk, and decision intelligence firm helping organizations confront the hidden human risks inside artificial intelligence systems. A recognized voice in responsible AI, escalation arc... Show more

Débora Wolosky

Débora Wolosky

Débora Wolosky es speaker vivencial, Licenciada en Recursos Humanos y Relaciones Públicas, y fundadora y directora de TIK RRHH. Hace más de 20 años trabaja con organizaciones, líderes y equipos de Latinoamérica, diseñando experiencias de aprendizaje, cultura y transformación. Sus conferencias combinan historias y casos reales, participación, humor y herramientas aplicables. Es creadora de Jutzpá Organizacional, el Modelo Centauro —(IA + IH) × AC— y Aprendizaje en la era de la IA. Su eje es qué capacidades humanas y culturales necesitamos para aprender, conservar el criterio y hacer que las cosas sucedan.

Trabajó con organizaciones como Mercedes-Benz, Natura, EY, Cencosud, Swiss Medical, Santander, Ford y Scania. Es docente en UCEMA y Burō Business School, y ha participado como columnista e invitada en Infobae, Clarín, iProfesional, CNN Radio, Revista Fortuna y Santander Post.

Débora Wolosky es speaker vivencial, Licenciada en Recursos Humanos y Relaciones Públicas, y fundadora y directora de TIK RRHH. Hace más de 20 años trabaja con organizaciones, líderes y equipos de Latinoamérica, diseñando experiencias de aprendizaje,... Show more

Nizzar Ben Chekroune

Nizzar Ben Chekroune

Nizzar Ben Chekroune is a Brand Strategist and Founder of Quantum Branding, working across Brand × AI × Business. His work focuses on the decisions underneath brands, products, marketing and technology: what should change, what matters, and what deserves to exist. Through Quantum Branding, he works across brand and positioning, marketing, digital experiences, AI systems, intelligent tools and organizational adoption. His career has moved across brands, institutions, culture and emerging technology, including a deep Web3/blockchain chapter and speaking appearances at international technology and innovation events. In 2025, he worked with Africa Business School / UM6P on a strategic marketing and emerging-technology engagement involving practical AI applications and internal workshops across several operational teams. He is also the creator of BrandOS, a product built from the Quantum Branding practice.

Nizzar Ben Chekroune is a Brand Strategist and Founder of Quantum Branding, working across Brand × AI × Business. His work focuses on the decisions underneath brands, products, marketing and technology: what should change, what matters, and what dese... Show more

Stephanie Weis

Stephanie Weis

Stephanie Weis, M.Ed. is a Product Manager at Carnegie Mellon University and an ADHD coach. She holds a Master of Education from Duquesne University and completed ICF-accredited coach training through the ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA). Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she draws on lived experience alongside her work at CMU's Central Computing Services, where she leads product strategy and continuous improvement for a 23-service IT portfolio across a decentralized, multi-campus organization, and was selected as 1 of 9 leaders from 300+ applicants for CMU's MOR Leaders program. She has taken the stage at NERCOMP (EDUCAUSE), the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and Pennwriters, and was an adjunct faculty member teaching writing at the Community College of Allegheny County. Through her coaching practice, she works with individuals to move beyond one-size-fits-all strategies and find what actually works for the ADHD brain.

Stephanie Weis, M.Ed. is a Product Manager at Carnegie Mellon University and an ADHD coach. She holds a Master of Education from Duquesne University and completed ICF-accredited coach training through the ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA). Diagnosed with ADH... Show more

Chander Gupta

Chander Gupta

With a vivid experience of more than 21 years in the corporate and education sector. Holding a master’s in commerce and law and specializing in taxation, he has been working closely on accounting law ethics and their legal aspects. His interest in accounting and frauds lead him to learn more about Financial Crimes and as a result, is this book. He has presented and published his work in several conferences at national and international level, in Scopus. The author has four copyrights in his name and is currently working on Forensic Accounting and Financial Crimes, in his free time he is capturing nature or writing.
But one thing which keep me alive is I love to learn.

With a vivid experience of more than 21 years in the corporate and education sector. Holding a master’s in commerce and law and specializing in taxation, he has been working closely on accounting law ethics and their legal aspects. His interest in ac... Show more

Marshmallow / Tyler

Marshmallow / Tyler

I'm a comic artist from Toronto who draws a lot of gay positive comics, and self publish my work! I'm also the suiter of MarshmallowMaw!

I'm a comic artist from Toronto who draws a lot of gay positive comics, and self publish my work! I'm also the suiter of MarshmallowMaw! Show more

Sahap Gizlen

Sahap Gizlen

Sahap Gizlen helps leaders decide where AI belongs in the business—and where it does not. Through Gizlen Global, he works at the intersection of AI adoption, operating design, communication, and execution.

His approach starts with the work itself: bottlenecks, unclear ownership, decision points, and the places where human judgment still matters. Rather than treating AI as a collection of tools, prompt tricks, or technology for its own sake, he focuses on practical ways to make work clearer, faster, and less dependent on constant intervention.

His background spans business operations, organizational leadership, education, communication, product development, and AI-enabled workflow design. This gives him a cross-functional perspective on how people, technology, and organizations actually work together.

His talks explore practical AI adoption, leadership, communication, the future of work, and the question organizations increasingly need to answer: Are we using AI to improve the way we work—or simply adding AI to a system that was already broken?

Sahap Gizlen helps leaders decide where AI belongs in the business—and where it does not. Through Gizlen Global, he works at the intersection of AI adoption, operating design, communication, and execution. His approach starts with the work itself:... Show more

Wiebke Apitzsch

Wiebke Apitzsch

Wiebke Apitzsch is a German expert in artificial intelligence (AI), data-driven transformation, and strategic change in business and industry. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing AI initiatives at the intersection of business, technology, and organizational development, with deep experience in AI Ethics. As co-founder and CTO of the consulting firm AI.IMPACT, she supports organizations across industries in strategically embedding AI solutions and making them operationally effective.

Previously, she held leadership roles at Boston Consulting Group, TTE Strategy, and StatSoft, with a focus on data-driven decision-making models, change management, and translating analytical potential into sustainable business value. Wiebke Apitzsch is a certified Executive Coach (INSEAD), an MBA student in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at LMU Munich, and a sought-after speaker at conferences and podcasts. She is also committed to promoting diversity in the tech sector and advocates for greater visibility of women in technology-driven industries.

Wiebke Apitzsch is a German expert in artificial intelligence (AI), data-driven transformation, and strategic change in business and industry. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing AI initiatives at the intersection of business, ... Show more

Suzanne Valdez

Suzanne Valdez

Two generations of law students at the University of Kansas knew Suzanne Valdez as the professor who taught them Professional Responsibility and Prosecutorial Ethics. Kansas lawyers know her as a special prosecutor, a judge pro tem, and the district attorney who led Douglas County from 2021 to 2025. The Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, one of four federally recognized tribes in the state, knows her as its Attorney General. Nearly three decades of public service, legal education, and courtroom practice have produced all of those descriptions, and a single conviction sits beneath them: the legal system works best when it accounts for the people inside it.

Her academic career began in 1999, when she joined the University of Kansas School of Law, and lasted through 2021, more than twenty years as a Clinical Professor of Law. Her teaching load included State Court Practice along with the ethics courses, and she ran workshops in deposition skills and expert witness examination. Administratively she directed the Criminal Prosecution Field Placement Program, the Externship Clinic, and the LL.M. program in Elder Law, while students at the Douglas County Legal Aid Society practiced under her supervision. Recognition followed: the Connell Teaching Professorship in 2019, two Immel Awards for Teaching Excellence, and the presidency of the KU University Senate in 2019 and 2020.

The scholarship matched the syllabus. Suzanne Valdez and Professor R. Michael Cassidy co-authored the third edition of Prosecutorial Ethics, published by West Publishing in the American Casebook Series. University of California Press published Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v. Wade in 2024 with a chapter of hers in it. Her law review and bar journal writing includes a policy paper on low-level, non-violent female drug offenders in Kansas, and she compiled Practice in Kansas, a course text that covers civil procedure, landlord-tenant law, consumer protection, and family law. Roughly 100 professional presentations sit alongside the publications, and a new book drawn from her years in prosecution is in progress.

One faculty role pointed toward everything that came later. From 2015 until her departure in 2021, Valdez was the law school's ombudsperson, mediating conflict among faculty, students, and staff. The assignment convinced her that alternatives to litigation deserve a larger place in the justice system, particularly in how that system responds to non-violent crime.

Practice never stopped during the academic years. She had started at Kansas Legal Services in 1996, representing low-income clients in Kansas City, Kansas, across civil and criminal matters and in federal disability and housing litigation. She served twice as a special prosecutor in the Wyandotte County District Attorney's Office, from 2005 to 2008 and from 2017 to 2020, handling high-level felony conflict of interest cases. In 2008 she took the bench as a pro tem district judge in Douglas County, presiding over the juvenile offender, post-decree family law, and criminal first appearance dockets. Her Of Counsel position at Smith Legal, LLC, ran from 2009 through 2021 and involved civil matters in Kansas state court for private and pro bono clients.

She gave the state a great deal of unpaid time as well. Suzanne Valdez chaired the Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Board for eight years, overseeing a compensation fund that averaged roughly $3 million annually for survivors of violent crime. Two Kansas Attorneys General nominated her to the chairmanship, and three times the Kansas Senate confirmed her unanimously. She chaired the Kansas Continuing Legal Education Commission, sat on the Kansas Judicial Council's Family Law Advisory Committee and the Kansas Supreme Court's Access to Justice Committee, and served on American Bar Association law school accreditation teams.

Then came the elected office. As District Attorney for Douglas County, Kansas, from 2021 to 2025, she was the chief law enforcement officer for roughly 125,000 residents, with an office of about 50 employees and a budget of approximately $2 million. She directed those limited resources toward violent crime, including sexual assault of children and adults, intimate partner violence, and gun offenses. With fentanyl deaths climbing across Kansas, she prosecuted those who distributed it, a priority shaped by loss. A fentanyl poisoning death in 2019 had taken her brother, Christopher Valdez, a U.S. Army veteran. She helped secure $1 million in funding to establish a Veterans Treatment Court in Douglas County, working alongside retired Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, and she supported alternatives to incarceration, community outreach and crime prevention, and services for victims of crime.

Restorative justice became her full-time work next. From May 2025 to May 2026 she was a restorative justice mediator, facilitator, and trainer at the Center for Conflict Resolution in Kansas City, Missouri. The role had her mediating interpersonal conflict, facilitating community accountability boards and victim offender dialogues, and co-leading the organization's conflict resolution trainings. She served as its People and Culture Administrator too, handling internal staff matters through the same restorative lens. At the heart of the discipline is one observation, that harmed people harm people, and a method built on dignity, acknowledgment, and accountability as the route to restoring everyone involved in a conflict. Its roots lie in the practices of indigenous tribes before colonization, which links it directly to the Indian law work she does today.

As Attorney General, Suzanne Valdez represents the Kickapoo Tribe as a sovereign nation. The Tribe's economic development plan takes much of her current attention, and she keeps sovereignty and self-determination at the forefront of every agreement. She has also established Suzanne Valdez, LLC, Restorative Justice Law and Mediation, a Kansas practice she is building as she continues her commitment to Indian law.

Her community record is long. Her board service includes Douglas County CASA and the Douglas County Child Advocacy Center, which serves children who have been abused or neglected. She has volunteered with LINK, the Lawrence interdenominational nutrition kitchen, led a unit at Hidden Valley Girl Scout Camp, worked with Mentoring4Success in support of women returning to their communities after incarceration, and served as an admissions field representative for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Volunteering during her year in Kansas City included support for transgender women in the Missouri Department of Corrections and on probation and parole. March 2024 brought a Certificate of Appreciation in Recognition of Women's History Month from the Lawrence Army Recruiting Station, given after she directed her office to clear outstanding tickets and petty misdemeanors for Army recruits so they could report to basic training.

She earned her J.D. at the University of Kansas School of Law in 1996, serving on the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy and receiving the Walter Hiersteiner Outstanding Service Award. Her B.S. in business administration, awarded with Highest Distinction, is from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kansas and Missouri both license her, and she is admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.

She lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where family is the center of her life, from her parents to her grown children and the wider circle she has helped raise. Marathons are in the past, but she still runs. She reads historical fiction, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, and she follows Jayhawk sports closely.

Two generations of law students at the University of Kansas knew Suzanne Valdez as the professor who taught them Professional Responsibility and Prosecutorial Ethics. Kansas lawyers know her as a special prosecutor, a judge pro tem, and the district ... Show more

Heather McDaniel

Heather McDaniel

Heather McDaniel is a speaker, writer, and organizational consultant based in Spain. She writes and speaks about how people work, lead, decide, learn, and create together.

Her perspective draws on a 28-year career spanning communication, operations, consulting, learning, and facilitation, including work with international and distributed teams across Europe and North America.

She works with leadership teams on organizational readiness, leadership alignment, decision-making, and how people work together through change. Her current work also includes using training and communication expertise to improve AI models for a leading AI lab, and she is Microsoft Certified as an AI Transformation Leader.

Heather also works in adult learning and Erasmus+ partnerships across Europe, designing and facilitating learning experiences for international and cross-cultural groups.

She writes Letters From the Joyful Rebellion, a personal column about the things she notices, the questions she keeps coming back to, and what they show us about the way we live.

Her speaking brings together practical organizational experience, systems thinking, curiosity, and a longstanding interest in power, language, culture, technology, and how people make sense of change.

She is based in Cullera, Valencia, Spain, and is available for talks, workshops, panels, and facilitated learning across Europe and North America, in person or virtually.

Heather McDaniel is a speaker, writer, and organizational consultant based in Spain. She writes and speaks about how people work, lead, decide, learn, and create together. Her perspective draws on a 28-year career spanning communication, operation... Show more

Tanya Hallett

Tanya Hallett

Tanya Hallett is the an award winning, trauma informed practice and diversity, equity and inclusion specialist. After teaching in some of WA's hardest to staff schools, she decided to take what she had learned outside of education and into the corporate and government world. She is the founder and CEO of TIPT. She specialises in building trauma informed workplaces, mental health and well being, and building team culture through psychological safety and mitigating psychosocial risk. She is a Mental Health First Aid Instructor, a Grief First Aid Instructor, and a LEGO Serious Play facilitator.

Tanya Hallett is the an award winning, trauma informed practice and diversity, equity and inclusion specialist. After teaching in some of WA's hardest to staff schools, she decided to take what she had learned outside of education and into the corpor... Show more

Dr. Saara Haapanen

Dr. Saara Haapanen

Dr. Saara Haapanen is a human performance and leadership strategist, speaker, and internationally published researcher whose PhD work focused on motivation and optimal performance.
For more than 25 years, she has coached and trained high performers across individual, team, and organizational settings, from elite athletes and executives to physicians and large workforces.
Through Performance is Haapanen, she helps organizations create the conditions for their humans to perform at their best. Her work integrates motivation science, psychobiosocial performance, neurodiversity, workplace well-being, and practical performance design.
Saara has been featured in Forbes Health, Shape, Reader’s Digest, and other national media and is known for energetic, highly interactive sessions that turn research into ideas leaders can immediately use.

Dr. Saara Haapanen is a human performance and leadership strategist, speaker, and internationally published researcher whose PhD work focused on motivation and optimal performance. For more than 25 years, she has coached and trained high performers... Show more

Rahul Kapoor

Rahul Kapoor

Rahul is a Speaker, Mindset Coach and Author who
lives with a vision and purpose to help people across
the world to ignite their inner potential and achieve
results that matter.

He incorporates valuable content for business and
personal growth with practical and implementable
tools. Rahul is known as a 'live wire' in delivering
highly memorable, inspirational programs to
individuals, teams and organizations.
His customized content, which is a combination of
Psychology, Science and Spirituality, is delivered to
hundreds of prominent organizations, including many
Fortune 500 companies.

Over the last 25 years, Rahul Kapoor’s programs have
inspired over 5,00,000 people across 15 countries like
India, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, USA and
the Middle East.
Participants have shown tremendous connect with
self, improved health, enhanced relationships and
reported significant rise in productivity.

Rahul is also a guest faculty at Indian Institute of
Management, Bangalore & JAIN Deemed to be University.
He was also the Official Host for Royal Challengers
Bangalore cricket team in DLF IPL 3, 4, and 5.

Author and Columnist
He has inspired many through his columns in leading dailies like The Times of India - Education Times,
Dainik Bhaskar and Feelings Magazine. He has authored two books:
WorkWise – Lessons in Excellence for Young Professionals
Dad and I – Inspiring Stories for Teen

Awards and Achievements
BRIEF PROFILE
Mindset Coach Speaker Author
Recognized as Motivational Speaker
of The Year 2025 by Times Group
Currently Ranked #47 among Top 100
Motivational Speakers Worldwide on
Feedspot
Honored with Suryadutta National
Award for Best Motivational Speaker

Rahul is a Speaker, Mindset Coach and Author who lives with a vision and purpose to help people across the world to ignite their inner potential and achieve results that matter. He incorporates valuable content for business and personal growth... Show more

Ivo van den Berk

Ivo van den Berk

Dr. Ivo van den Berk ist wissenschaftlicher Leiter Transfer und Teamleiter Wissenstransfer in der Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre. Mit seinem Team hat er den Transferkiosk (die Projekt- und Maßnahmen- und Publikationsdatenbank der StIL) entwickelt. Zuvor war er u.a. Leiter hochschuldidaktischer Einrichtungen in Emden und Hamburg, an der Universität Hamburg zudem Studiendekan des Master of Higher Education sowie Vertretungsprofessor für Hochschuldidaktik. Er ist Initiator und Mitherausgeber der Online Zeitschriften die hochschullehre und patternpool. Er ist Fellow des Stifterverbands und Mitglied des Netzwerks Lehre-hoch-N. Seine Interessen und Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen in der Weiterentwicklung von Lehre und Studium, insbesondere durch Verbesserung der Zugänglichkeit zu sowie der Systematisierung von hochschul- und wissenschaftsdidaktischem Wissen.

Dr. Ivo van den Berk ist wissenschaftlicher Leiter Transfer und Teamleiter Wissenstransfer in der Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre. Mit seinem Team hat er den Transferkiosk (die Projekt- und Maßnahmen- und Publikationsdatenbank der StIL) ent... Show more

Pav Lertjitbanjong

Pav Lertjitbanjong

Pav Lertjitbanjong is a Decision Scientist focused on how leaders think clearly, exercise judgment, and make consequential decisions in the AI era. Her work asks a timely question: when AI can generate the answer, who should make the decision and who is responsible for what happens next?

She is the founder of PAVNESS Lab, a decision science company. Over more than 20 years inside Fortune 500 and global organizations, most recently as Head of Strategic Analytics at Adobe, Pav advised senior leaders on the data, go-to-market, and marketing strategies behind some of their highest-stakes decisions.

Her PAVNESS THINK Protocol combines two decades of operator pattern recognition with Decision Science and research-informed training for thinking and performing under pressure.

Pav holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BBA in Decision Science from the University of Kentucky, with additional Stanford training in AI Leadership and Public Speaking. Her upcoming speaking engagements include TED x KhonKaenU in Thailand, where she will present “AI Didn’t Make You a Bad Decision Maker (You Already Were),” and the AI Rising Conference in Ohio, where she will present “Think Clearly With AI.”

She is based in Minnesota and frequently works from Bangkok, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pav Lertjitbanjong is a Decision Scientist focused on how leaders think clearly, exercise judgment, and make consequential decisions in the AI era. Her work asks a timely question: when AI can generate the answer, who should make the decision and who... Show more

Stephanie Colores

Stephanie Colores

Stephanie Colores Bueno is a former Fortune 100 HR executive with over 23 years at Procter & Gamble, where she led global leadership development, culture transformation, and enterprise change initiatives. In her final years, she played a key role in shaping the growth and restructuring of the Information Technology function, supporting enterprise digital transformation and the adoption of AI. She is the Founder of Strategic Connexus, a boutique advisory firm focused on strategy, transformation, and leadership development, helping founders and mid-sized organizations connect strategy, people, and technology to drive adoption, transformation, and growth. She is currently completing the Chief Human Resources Officer Executive Program at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania.
Stephanie is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, and executive coach who equips leaders and teams to navigate complexity, lead through transformation, and build high-performing, human-centered cultures. Drawing from over two decades of global experience across three countries, she brings a practical, business-driven perspective grounded in real enterprise transformation. Her sessions combine leadership, change management, and storytelling to create engaging, actionable experiences that resonate from emerging leaders to C-suite executives. Known for translating strategy into people-centered execution, she helps organizations close the gap between vision and results in today’s fast-evolving digital environment. Her work focuses on enabling founders and leaders of growing, mid-sized organizations to lead at the pace of transformation—aligning strategy, people, and technology to accelerate adoption, strengthen execution, and deliver measurable business results.

Stephanie Colores Bueno is a former Fortune 100 HR executive with over 23 years at Procter & Gamble, where she led global leadership development, culture transformation, and enterprise change initiatives. In her final years, she played a key role in ... Show more

Jonathan Ward

Jonathan Ward

Ex-CEO turned author, consultant, and educator, I have spent thirty years of international leadership experience at the intersection of AI, Business Agility, and DevOps. I'm the author of The Supercharged Enterprise: Strategic Adaptation for Growth and Resilience (Business Expert Press) and Developing Agile Coaches, and I've distilled that experience into the Blueprint for Enterprise Agility — a framework built on eight Leadership Behaviours and eight Operational Processes that I teach and apply directly in client transformations.

My current work focuses on where AI meets governance and portfolio management: I've developed and deliver a course treating Lean Portfolio Management combined with AI as a control system, with AI as the sensing and optimisation layer — alongside advisory work helping financial services and other regulated organisations govern AI responsibly. I believe, and have proven repeatedly, that Enterprise Agility done well produces measurable growth and profit, not just cultural change for its own sake.

I've operated at every level from board to project team, across Financial Services, Banking, Payments, Insurance, FMCG, TV, and Retail — leading large-scale agile transformations and applying AI directly in software development and testing environments. That range across people, process, technology, and now AI governance lets me craft change initiatives that hold up under real organisational pressure, not just in the deck.

Ex-CEO turned author, consultant, and educator, I have spent thirty years of international leadership experience at the intersection of AI, Business Agility, and DevOps. I'm the author of The Supercharged Enterprise: Strategic Adaptation for Growth a... Show more

Laura Spencer

Laura Spencer

Laura K. Spencer, Ed.D. leads AI adoption across a 2,500-person educational organization as Chief Academic Officer, where her portfolio covers curriculum, assessment, professional development, and IT. She has spent 26 years watching technology arrive in organizations, and most of that time watching what happens after the rollout ends. Her work focuses on the gap between deployment and actual impact, and on the diagnostic questions leaders skip before committing. She has delivered sessions at ISTE and Insight Jam, co-authored a course on legal and ethical boundaries in AI, and is a U.S. Army veteran.

Laura K. Spencer, Ed.D. leads AI adoption across a 2,500-person educational organization as Chief Academic Officer, where her portfolio covers curriculum, assessment, professional development, and IT. She has spent 26 years watching technology arrive... Show more

Jodie Levy

Jodie Levy

Jodie Levy was a founding member of the UK AI Security Institute and is a Visiting Fellow at Constellation. She works at the intersection of frontier AI security, misuse and technical governance, with research spanning multi-step misuse, agentic risk and enforceable safety controls. She has advised and engaged governments and international stakeholders on frontier AI risk, security and governance.

Jodie Levy was a founding member of the UK AI Security Institute and is a Visiting Fellow at Constellation. She works at the intersection of frontier AI security, misuse and technical governance, with research spanning multi-step misuse, agentic risk... Show more

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