Speaker

Asheesh Advani
President and CEO of JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide

Asheesh is the President and CEO of JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide, one of the largest youth-serving NGOs in the world focused on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness. During his tenure leading JA Worldwide since 2015, the organization has been recognized as one of the ten most impactful NGOs in the world in annual rankings and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Prior to joining JA, Asheesh was a technology entrepreneur and led two businesses successfully from start-up to acquisition. His entrepreneurial endeavors have been profiled in case studies at Harvard Business School and Babson College. Asheesh is actively involved in the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has been an annual speaker in Davos for the last seven years, co-chaired the Civil Society Advisory Council, and served on the Global Agenda Council for the Future of Education, Gender, and Work. He started his career as a consultant at Monitor Company (now Monitor Deloitte) and at the World Bank.

In 2021, Asheesh received The Tony Hsieh Award as recognition for his leadership of JA Worldwide. In 2022, Asheesh was selected as an honoree from the United States for the YPO Global Social Impact Award. Asheesh is the author of Modern Achievement (forthcoming in 2024) with celebrated leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith, a book that reconsiders the definition of achievement for aspiring leaders. He is a sought-after keynote speaker with experience speaking at Fortune 500 corporate gatherings, the Great Hall of the People in China, the United Nations, technology conferences such as Collision and Web Summit, and at major universities including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Penn, Tufts, and Yale.

Asheesh holds degrees from the Wharton School and Oxford University, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He lives in the Boston-area with his wife, Helen Rosenfeld, and twin sons.

Speaker

Hasan Alsuhaimi
Founder and CEO, Diom Holding Company

Established entrepreneur and business Leader with more than 13 years of investment, sales and corporate leadership, coupled with non-executive and advisory experience. Founder and CEO of Diom Holding Company that specializes in workspace solutions, founder of 26 North Glamping in Alula, Partner and Board Member of Delicious Food Factory. Hasan has an outstanding track record of establishing new companies and teams, restructuring businesses and delivering exceptional revenue growth. Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, Hasan Led Steelcase inc. business in the Middle East, and prior to that he worked in investment and consulting for Olayan Financing Company and Fama Holding.

Hasan holds an MBA from Carlos III University in Madrid and a Finance Degree from University of Pittsburgh, and is also a graduate of the MISK 2030 Leaders Program, a joint MISK-ESADE leadership executive program.

Speaker

Stefan Asenkerschbaumer
Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Robert Bosch GmbH

Stefan Asenkerschbaumer has been chairman of the supervisory board of Robert Bosch GmbH and managing partner of Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG since January 1, 2022.

Born in Burghausen in 1956, Stefan Asenkerschbaumer is married and has two children. After a commercial apprenticeship, he was awarded a degree in business education at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 1982, and a further degree in business administration in 1984. These degrees were followed by a PhD on the subject of innovation management. In 2017, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg appointed him honorary professor. Since 2019, he has been president of the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft (Schmalenbach society for business administration). Asenkerschbaumer has been a member of the BASF supervisory board since April 2022, a non-executive director of the Swiss company Stadler Rail AG since May 2022, and a member of the board of Stifterverband, a German industry association to promote the scienceshumanities, and higher education, since June 2022. He was recently appointed to the German federal chancellor’s “Zukunftsrat” policy think tank.

Speaker

Mathis Bitton
Ph.D student in the Government department, Harvard University

Mathis Bitton is a student of philosophy and political theory at Yale, currently working at the magazine Palladium. Hailing from Rabat, Morocco, he edits the Yale Historical Review and the Yale Herald, writes columns for the Yale Daily News, and serves as the Vice President of the Yale Political Union. A former intern at the American Enterprise Institute, the French National Assembly, and the Tikvah Fund, his work has appeared in National Review.

DOWNLOAD CV

Speaker

Gonzalo Brujó
Global CEO, Interbrand

Gonzalo is Global President at Interbrand Group. He leads the day-to-day operations of the global corporate group, spearheading the growth agenda and supporting marketing and consulting efforts in all the regions.

He has been Global Chief Growth Officer of the Interbrand Group for three years. Prior to that, he spent more than fifteen years scaling the Interbrand business in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Gonzalo is a trusted partner of a diverse array of leading companies, multinationals and public institutions, managing strategic projects across every aspect of branding, marketing and communication. He has worked with well-known prestigious companies across all sectors: banking & financial services, telecommunications, automotive, airlines, transport, fashion, luxury, FMCG, food & beverages and technology, amongst others.

He is passionate about helping companies in all sectors drive growth. He has advised many of the world’s best-known brands, including Santander, The Coca- Cola Company, Iberia, Volkswagen Group, Zara, Renault, Huawei, Uber, LatAm and Axa.

Additionally, Brujó is a professor at several business schools including IE Business School, the University of Navarra and the LVMH Academy, and is the author of a number of top-selling brand books, including: The Secrets of Luxury, Managing Brands in Fashion, The New Generation of Value, and Lanmarq.

Before joining Interbrand, Gonzalo was the Managing Director for Futurebrand and Executive Vice-President and Director of Green Team Advertising in New York.

Gonzalo holds a BA in Communications, Political Science and Sociology from Wheaton College, Norton, MA. He also attended Harvard, MA, the American University of Paris and the College for International Studies in Madrid, in affiliation with Bentley College, Waltham, MA.

Speaker

Laurent Choain
Chief People, Education & Culture Officer, Forvis Mazars

Laurent currently serves as Chief People, Education & Culture Officer of Forvis Mazars, an international, European-originating, integrated and independent organisation in professional services. Forvis Mazars can rely on the talent of 40,000 professionals, led by 1000+ partners in 90+ countries over 6 continents. 

Laurent has led a career at the crossroads of leadership in large companies (banking sector, luxury hospitality), consulting, entrepreneurship as well as business schools.  For more than thirty years, his vocation has been to develop executive education through innovative endeavours in both academic and corporate worlds, founding and leading corporate universities, launching post-graduate programmes for executives and chairing think tanks on the future of leadership education. In June 2011, he joined the board of EFMD as well as the EQUIS Awarding Body in 2014, and became in 2013 a member of the board of the Peter Drucker Society Europe. Laurent also sat on the French Regulation Authority of Business Schools (CEFDG) between 2011 and 2017. He is a professor of leadership at the University of Paris Pantheon Assas, and fellow of ESCP Europe.

Speaker

Richard Cockett
Senior Editor, The Economist

Dr Richard Cockett is the author of Vienna; How the City of Ideas created the Modern World, published by Yale University Press in 2023. He is a senior editor at The Economist, having been a correspondent in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Before joining the newspaper he lectured in History and Politics at the University of London, and was a Junior Research Fellow at the British Academy. He is the author of eight books.

Speaker

Monica Culen
Founder and Chair, Board of Trustees RED NOSES International, Non-Profit Foundation

Monica Culen started her career as Public Relations & Protocol Officer at the OPEC FUND for International Development, organizing a.o. the Ministerial Meetings and Governing Sessions in Vienna, Africa, and South America.

In 1991 Monica Culen initiated in Austria the first Hospital-Clown project in Europe and subsequently established RED NOSES Clowndoctors Austria in 1994. By 1996, she established an additional organization in Hungary. Over time, the clown program broadened its focus from sick children to include geriatric patients and rehabilitation centers, developing specialized formats for various beneficiaries. The initiative extended its reach to CEE countries and the Middle East, with organizations now operating in 12 countries. Collaborating with major humanitarian organizations, RED NOSES International conducts special missions worldwide. t currently stands as the largest international ClownCare organization.

Monica Culen stepped down as CEO from the Managing Board in April 2023 and serves now as Chair of the Board of Trustees.

From 2004 to 2021, Monica Culen served as the President of the Austrian Fundraising Association. Additionally, she held the position of Founding President of EFHCO, the European Federation of Hospital Clown Organizations, from 2011 to 2021. Among other awards, Monica Culen was honored by the Austrian President with the Golden Medal of Merits for the Republic of Austria.
 

DOWNLOAD CV

Speaker

Jenny Darroch
Dean, Mitchell P. Rales Chair in Business Leadership Professor of Marketing, Farmer School of Business | Miami University

Jenny Darroch is the dean of the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford Ohio, a position she has held since 2020. She also holds the Mitchell P. Rales Chair in Business Leadership. The school is currently ranked by Poets & Quants as a top-5 public undergraduate business school for career outcomes, skills development, the quality of faculty, and the degree being worth the time and cost.

Prior to joining the FSB, Jenny was dean of the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. Here she launched the Drucker School Global Family Business Institute and was instrumental in relaunching the MBA to embrace Management as a Liberal Art. Before moving to the USA, Jenny was Director of Entrepreneurship at the University of Otago in New Zealand and launched New Zealand’s first master’s degree in entrepreneurship.

Jenny has published two books with Palgrave MacMillan: Marketing Through Turbulent Times and Why Marketing to Women Doesn’t Work. Her research focused on looking at innovation strategies from the customers’ point of view — has been cited almost 7,500 times, appearing in marketing, management, innovation and entrepreneurship journals.

Speaker

Robin Dunbar
Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of Oxford

Robin Dunbar MA PhD DSc(Hon) FRAI FBA is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, and an elected Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Finnish Academy of Science & Letters and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His principal research interests focus on the evolution of sociality (with particular reference to primates and humans). He is best known for the social brain hypothesis, the gossip theory of language evolution and Dunbar’s Number (the limit on the number of manageable relationships). His publications include 15 academic books and 550 journal articles and book chapters. In 2023 Robin wrote ‘The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups’ in partnership with Tracey Camilleri and Samantha Rockey. His popular science books include The Trouble With Science; Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language; The Science of Love and Betrayal; Human Evolution; Evolution: What Everyone Needs To Know; Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships; and How Religion Evolved.

Speaker

Amy Edmondson
Professor of Leadership & Management, Harvard Business School

Amy C. Edmondson, PhD is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been ranked by the biannual Thinkers50 global list of top management thinkers since 2011 (most recently #1). She teaches and writes on leadership, teams and organizational learning.  Her most recent book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for leaders who are serious about building a thriving organization in the today’s uncertain environment. Her prior books, Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2012, 2103) and Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016) explore teamwork in dynamic, unpredictable work environments.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on the design and implementation of transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller's mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organizational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design, all from Harvard University.

She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband, George Daley, a physician-scientist and Dean of Harvard Medical School, with their two college-age sons.

Speaker

Tamara J. Erickson
Leadership Advisor; top ranked management thinker, T50

Tamara J. Erickson is a McKinsey Award-winning author and a widely-respected authority on new approaches to leadership, the changing workforce, collaboration and innovation, and the nature of work in intelligent organizations.  At London Business School, Erickson has designed and directs the school’s leadership programme for senior-most executives, Leading Businesses into the Future, works with executives in a number of custom programmes, and teaches in the School’s Masters programmes.

She has five times been named one of the 50 most influential living management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, the respected ranking of global business thinkers. Her leading-edge work is consistently showcased in the prestigious Global Drucker Forum, an international conference of prominent business leaders. She has authored five books and numerous widely-cited articles.

An experienced executive and global advisor, Erickson has also served on the Board of Directors of two Fortune 500 corporations, where she served on Governance, Audit, and Compensation Committees and as the Lead Independent Director.

Erickson holds a BA degree from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where she was the recipient of the James Thomas Chirurg Fellowship.

Speaker

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
Executive Fellow for Executive Education, Harvard Business School

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is a top global expert on leadership and talent, family businesses, and personal growth. He was ranked by Bloomberg as one of the most influential executive search consultants in the world and selected by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s leading thinkers on talent.

SEE FULL BIO

Speaker

Sarah Green Carmichael
Editor, Bloomberg Opinion

Sarah Green Carmichael is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion, where she also writes columns focused on office culture and the human side of the workplace. Previously, she was the managing editor of ideas and commentary at Barron's and an executive editor  at Harvard Business Review. She lives near Boston.

Speaker

Sabine Herlitschka
CEO, Infineon Technologies Austria AG

Sabine Herlitschka has been CEO of Infineon Technologies Austria AG since April 2014.

Her professional background includes industrial biotech research, international research and technology cooperation and financing, internships at renowned U.S. institutions, Fulbright scholar and founding Vice Rector at the Medical University of Graz.

Among numerous functions, Sabine Herlitschka is currently Vice President of the Federation of Austrian Industries and Chair of the Supervisory Board of FH Kärnten. Since 2024 she has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of Jülich Research Center, Germany, and since 2023 she has been Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of the Austrian Supply Chain Institute (ASCII). From 2020 until the end of June 2023, she was Deputy Chair of the Council for Research and Technology Development of the Austrian Federal Government. At the European level, she was Chair of the European Governing Board of the public-private partnership program "ECSEL-Electric Components and Systems for European Leadership" from 2018-2021.

She was elected Manager of the Year of 2021 by the business magazine Trend.

Sabine Herlitschka holds a PhD in Food & Biotechnology, Postdoc in Industrial Research and a Master of Business Administration.

Speaker

Michael Kaschke
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), President of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft

Michael Kaschke is a German manager and scientist. He is chairman of the supervisory board of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and president of the Stifterverband, an association of the German industry for the promotion education, science and innovation During his professional career, Michael worked for the ZEISS Group for 30 years. He was a member of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG for more than 20 years and its President and from 2011 - 2020. Under his leadership, ZEISS developed into a successful, future-oriented portfolio company with leading global positions in all hi-tech areas of its businesses. The ZEISS Medizintechnik IPO, which he initiated as the first reverse IPO on the German stock market, resulted in the listing of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG on the German stock exchange MDAX making it one of the world's leading medical technology providers. Michael has sat on several supervisory boards in large, listed companies such as Henkel and Deutsche Telekom. From 2014 to 2020, he was a Member of the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat), one of Germany's most important scientific-political advisory committees. In 2019, he was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Following his retirement from ZEISS, Michael has become a member of Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG and of the Management Board of Ottobock Management SE. Michael teaches at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on optical medical technology and innovation process management. He received an honorary doctorate from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena in 2018. Michael graduated with a degree in physics from the University in Jena in 1983 and obtained a PhD in physics from the same University.

Speaker

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries
Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change, INSEAD Psychoanalyst

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of organizational dynamics, leadership, executive coaching, amalgamated psychotherapy. Bringing to bear his knowledge and experience of economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, MBA, and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (Membership Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, Paris Psychoanalytic Society, and the International Psychoanalytic Association), he explores individual and societal existential dilemmas in depth.

The Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, he is the Founder of INSEAD’s Executive Master Program in Change Management. He also has been the founder/ director of INSEAD’s Global Leadership Center. He has been a pioneer in team coaching as an intervention method to help organizations and people change. He has held professorships at McGill University, the École des Hautes Études Commerciales, Montreal, and the Harvard Business School. He is also a distinguished visiting professor at the European School for Management and Technology (ESMT), Berlin.The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Economist have rated Kets de Vries among the world’s leading management thinkers and among the most influential contributors to human resource management.

Kets de Vries is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 50 books (most recent books published by Palgrave, Wiley and Routledge https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Manfred+Kets+de+vries&dc&ref=a9_asc_1), has published more than 400 academic papers as chapters in books and as articles. He has also written more than 100 case studies, including seven that received the Best Case of the Year award and has written hundreds of mini-articles (blogs) for the Harvard Business Review, INSEAD Knowledge

Kets is also the first non-US recipient of the International Leadership Association Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to leadership research and development and the recipient of the “Freud Memorial Award” for his work to further the interface between management and psychoanalysis.

He works as a consultant on organizational design/transformation and strategic human resource management for companies worldwide. He is also the founder-chairman of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI), a boutique global strategic leadership development consulting firm with associates worldwide. On a very different note, Kets de Vries has also been the first fly fisherman in Outer Mongolia (at the time, becoming the world record holder of the Siberian hucho taimen trout).

Speaker

Peter G. Kirchschläger
Professor of theological ethics, University of Lucerne, director, Institute of Social Ethics ISE

Peter G. Kirchschlaeger is Ethics-Professor and Director of the Institute of Social Ethics ISE at the University of Lucerne, Visiting Professor at the Chair for Neuroinformatics and Neural Systems at ETH Zurich as well as at the ETH AI Center, and Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein (South Africa). Prior, he was Visiting Fellow at Yale University.

2011-2015, he was member of the Board of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights, 2013 Visiting Scholar at the University of Technology Sydney, 2013-2014 Guest-Professor at the Universiteit Leuven, 2013-2017 Fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, 2015-2019 Guest-Lecturer at the Leuphana University Lueneburg.
He is a consultative expert in Ethics of international organizations, President a.i. of the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology, and Director of the new Master Degree Program “Ethics”: www.unilu.ch/master-ethik.

Latest books: “Ethical Decision-Making” (2023) and “Digital Transformation and Ethics” (2021).

Speaker

Karen Linkletter
Director of the Management as a Liberal Art Research Institute

Karen Linkletter is Research Director of the Management as a Liberal Art Research Institute (MLARI), which is dedicated to the study and application of management as a liberal art in organizations. She leads a team of researchers working to advance the ideas of Peter F. Drucker and promote effective, ethical leadership. She and Dr. Joseph A. Maciariello co-authored the book Drucker’s Lost Art of Management: Peter Drucker’s Timeless Vision for Building Effective Organizations. Dr. Linkletter has published over 20 articles and essays. Her most recent article is “Leadership Character: A Holistic Approach.” She received her M.B.A. from Claremont Graduate University, where she studied with Peter Drucker. She received her Ph.D. in history, also from Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Linkletter taught in the American Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton for fifteen years. Prior to that, she worked in the financial sector for investment and insurance organizations. She is also a professional cellist, performing throughout southern California and teaching private students. Dr. Linkletter’s latest book, Peter Drucker and Management (Routledge), was released in June of 2024.

Speaker

Mickael Locoh
VP Southern Europe & Africa, Steelcase

Passionate about people, leadership and change management, Mickael Locoh, Vice President Southern Europe & Africa,  is with his team, helping companies all around the globe to have a workplace supporting their company’s strategic ambitions.

With a finance mathematics engineer background, he began his career in the financial sector at BNP Paribas as business continuity & crisis manager all around the world. Coordinating and dealing with the major crisis with the executive committee of the bank, he was in front line during key events like the subprime, Lehman Brother and all main ones impacting the business and image of the bank.

In 2011, to use his scientific background combined with more “soft skills”, he joined Steelcase. Part of the the EMEA leadership team, he is now in charge of the Southern Europe including countries like France, Luxembourg, Italy and also the African coutinent. He is also leading the team called “Clients without borders” working with fast growing companies expanding in Europe.

Speaker

Roger L. Martin
Professor Emeritus & Former Dean, Rotman School; Strategy advisor

In 2017, Roger was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers.

Roger is a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, Lego, Ford, BHP and Verizon.

Roger Martin is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto where he served as Dean from 1998-2013, Academic Director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship from 2004-2019 and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute from 2013-2019. In 2013, he was named global Dean of the Year by the leading business school website, Poets & Quants.

His newest book is A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Managerial Effectiveness (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022). His previous twelve books include When More is Not Better (HBRP, 2020), Creating Great Choices written with Jennifer Riel (HBRP, 2017) Getting Beyond Better written with Sally Osberg (HBRP, 2015) and Playing to Win written with A.G. Lafley (HBRP, 2013), which won the award for Best Book of 2012-13 by the Thinkers50. He has written 33 Harvard Business Review articles.

Roger received his BA from Harvard College, with a concentration in Economics, in 1979 and his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1981. He lives in South Florida with his wife, Marie-Louise Skafte.

Speaker

Ade McCormack
Founder, Intelligent Leadership Hub

• Helps leaders create adaptive organisations that benefit all stakeholders.
• Works across public and private sectors.
• Is a former technologist.
• Is a former Financial Times columnist.
• Has lectured at MIT Sloan on leadership matters.
• Works with Cambridge University (Moller Institute) on leadership development.
• Trained in astrophysics and has worked for the European Space Agency.
• Has worked in over forty countries across the world across multiple sectors with many of the world’s most prominent brands.
• Has written six books on leadership and transformation.

Speaker

Melodie Nakhle
Managing Director Amway ESAN

Melodie Nakhle serves as Managing Director of Amway Europe, Southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand (ESAN), an entrepreneur-led health and wellbeing company with the goal of helping 1 billion people live better, healthier lives. Under her strategic guidance, leading a team of more than 1,000 individuals across more than 30 diverse markets, Amway has established itself as an industry leader in Health + Wellbeing solutions and has been ranked as the No. 1 direct selling company in the world, according to the 2024 Direct Selling News Global 100 list.

Melodie joined Amway in 2010 as a Senior Manager in Amway's Global Brand Management team, leading the innovation strategy for Nutrilite—the world's number one selling vitamin and dietary supplements brand according to Global Data. In 2012, she transitioned to the Asia Pacific region where she served as Chief Experience Officer and Director of Marketing & New Business Development before being promoted to Chief Sales Officer (CSO) for Amway Japan in 2016. As CSO for Amway Japan, she led sales growth and improved profitability, significantly contributing to the company’s overall financial performance until she assumed managerial direction of the ESAN region.

Melodie uses her leadership platform to advocate for and support fellow women in business, within an industry where it is estimated that more than 85% of the distributors are women. In her institutional role as Vice-Chair of the Executive Council (ExCo) at Amcham EU, where she stands as the sole woman in the ExCo Leadership team, Melodie actively contributes to driving continuous improvement in European global competitiveness and fostering a growth-oriented business and investment climate within the EU. Additionally, Melodie is a member of the CEO Council at SELDIA (The European Direct Selling Association).

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Melodie moved to the U.S. as a child, then to Chile and Argentina, and back to the U.S. at the age of 15, where she completed high school in Berrien Springs, Michigan. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Health Psychology from Andrews University in Michigan and her MBA with concentrations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Melodie resides in Munich with her husband and their two children.

Speaker

Dan Pontefract
Leadership and Culture strategist

Dan Pontefract is a renowned leadership strategist, author, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience in senior executive roles at companies such as SAP, TELUS, and Business Objects. Since then, he has worked with organizations worldwide, including Salesforce, Amgen, the State of Tennessee, Nestlé, Canada Post, Autodesk, BMO, the Government of Canada, Manulife, Nutrien, and the City of Toronto, among others.

As an award-winning and best-selling author, Dan has written five books: WORK-LIFE BLOOM, LEAD. CARE. WIN., OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT, and FLAT ARMY. Dan also writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and other outlets.

Dan is a renowned keynote speaker who has presented at four TED events and has delivered over 600 keynotes . He is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business and has received over 25 industry, individual, and book awards.

Dan’s career is interwoven with corporate and academic experience, coupled with an MBA, B.Ed, and multiple industry certifications and awards. Notably, Dan is listed on the Thinkers50 Radar, HR Weekly’s 100 Most Influential People in HR, PeopleHum’s Top 200 Thought Leaders to Follow, and Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers.

DOWNLOAD PDF

Speaker

Margarete Schramböck
Former CEO of Central Europe’s biggest Telekom Operator A1, Founder of MSCH-Advisory.

For many years, Dr. Margarete Schramboeck has held prominent roles in the IT and telecommunications industry. With over 15 years of experience as a top executive at NTT Data and Alcatel, she achieved significant technological advancements and drove substantial business growth. Transitioning to the CEO of A1 Telekom Austria, the largest telecom operator in Central Europe, she continued to leave her mark. In 2018, Dr. Schramboeck was appointed as Minister of Digital and Economic Affairs, where she dedicated herself to the transformation of eGovernment services and the fortification of Austria’s business landscape. Presently, she serves as a board member of ARAMCO DIGITAL and is the founder of MSCH Advisory Consulting. Additionally, to her role as member of various advisory boards, she is an investor in several startups which focuses on data management and generative AI.

DOWNLOAD CV

Speaker

Jayshree Seth
Chief Science Advocate & Corporate Scientist, 3M

Jayshree Seth is a Corporate Scientist at 3M and currently holds 80 patents for a variety of innovations, with several additional pending. She joined 3M in 1993 after an MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University, New York. She is a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from her alma mater REC Trichy India, now NIIT Trichy, where she earned a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering. Jayshree was appointed 3M’s first ever Chief Science Advocate in 2018 and is using her scientific knowledge, technical expertise and professional experience to advance science and communicate the benefits of science and the importance of diversity in STEM fields to drive innovation. She is also a member of Carlton Society which is the 3M Science and Innovation “Hall of Fame.” Jayshree is the fourth woman and first female engineer to be inducted. In 2020, she was awarded Society of Women Engineers (SWE) highest Achievement Award. She is also the first-ever winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the new Female Thought Leaders of the Year – category in the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business in 2021. Jayshree was featured in a docuseries titled Not the Science Type that premiered during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and was accepted for Brand Storytelling Showcase, a sanctioned event at Sundance Film Festival. She is the author of the books, The Heart of Science – Engineering Footprints, Fingerprints, & Imprints, and The Heart of Science – Engineering Fine Print published by the Society of Women Engineers, and all sales proceeds go to a scholarship for underrepresented minority women in STEM. She is a sought-after speaker, globally, with thought-leadership on a multitude of topics such as innovation, leadership, careers and STEM advocacy and has featured in local, national and international media. 

Jayshree has served on the CEOs Inclusion Council, chaired the 3M Asian Employee Resource Group A3CTION and serves on the Steering Committee for 3M Technical Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF). She also serves on the Board of the Science Museum of Minnesota, Engineering Advisory Council for Clarkson University, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Industry Advisory Council,  Advisory Board for Innovation - The Conference Board, and Advisory Group of Aspen Institute Our Future is Science program.

Jayshree has two adult kids, and her husband also works at 3M.

Speaker

Brian Solis
Digital Anthropologist and Futurist, ServiceNow

Futurist: Forbes heralded Brian Solis as “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time." He was recently named a "top futurist speaker," by ReadWrite. ZDNet called him “one of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers.”

Brian helps audiences understand the evolving, complex landscape of digital trends and how they impact our work, markets, and business over time. Whether it’s generative AI, AR/VR or and spatial computing, web3, the metaverse, IoT, digital twins, or robotics and autonomous vehicles and systems, Brian humanizes each wave of emergent disruption to help audiences understand trends and see themselves productively shaping the future. He helps shift people’s mindsets from being overwhelmed, confused, or intimidated to moving forward with curiosity, excitement, and imagination.

Digital Anthropologist: Brian is one of the industry’s first digital anthropologists who helped define the practice and humanized the trends. He observes how technology changes people’s behavior as leaders, employees, or customers and understand their aspirations, their values, how they make decisions, and how they want to work.

Through this research, Brian helps audiences empathize with different generations (Gen-Y, Z, Alpha) and understand how technology creates a cross-generational superset of people with similar behaviors, interests, and aspirations. Brian coined these important groups as Generation-Connected and Generation-Novel.

ServiceNow: Currently, Brian serves as the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow. In his role, he sets the strategic direction and programming for ServiceNow's Innovation and Executive Briefing Centers in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Paris, Sydney, and Singapore. Additionally, Brian designs and delivers engagements with customers to advise on digital and business innovation strategies. He writes for leading publications to help executives and customers understand technology and market trends and inspire business model innovation.

United Nations: Brian serves as a special adviser to the UN global innovation team. He develops workshops and keynotes that explore emergent trends and future scenarios, scenario strategies, skills development, and culture and leadership.

Salesforce: As the leader of Global Innovation at Salesforce, Brian gained a reputation as the “CxO Whisperer” because of his ability to translate shifting technology and market trends into actionable strategies. He also has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing companies and helps leaders think differently about current priorities and investments to future proof their organizations. Brian also partnered with leading

Speaker

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
SHRM-SCP President and CEO, SHRM

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. Recently named one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s Capital by the Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor’s career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer and an executive, serving at IAC, Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, among other organizations. He is a Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, the University of Miami; a member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees; Independent Director of the Flores & Associates corporate board and a member of the corporate boards of Guild Education, and XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO). He previously served as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. Mr. Taylor is a weekly contributor to USA Today, a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and a SHRM Certified Professional.

Speaker

Gillian Tett
Provost of Kings College Cambridge, Financial Times columnist

Gillian Tett serves as a chairman of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US of the Financial Times. She writes weekly columns, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. She is also the co-founder of FT Moral Money, a twice weekly newsletter that tracks the ESG revolution in business and finance which has since grown to be a staple FT product. In 2020 and 2021, Moral Money won the SABEW best newsletter.

Previously, Tett was the FT’s US managing editor from 2013 to 2019. She has also served as assistant editor for the FT’s markets coverage, capital markets editor, deputy editor of the Lex column, Tokyo bureau chief, Tokyo correspondent, London-based economics reporter and a reporter in Russia and Brussels.

Her latest book, Anthro-Vision, A New Way to See Life and Business came out in June 2021.

Before joining the Financial Times in 1993, Tett was awarded a PhD in social anthropology from Cambridge University based on field work in the former Soviet  Union. While pursuing the PhD, she freelanced for the FT and the BBC. She is a graduate of Cambridge University, and Gillian was elected to serve as Provost to King’s College Cambridge and took office in Fall of 2023. She was given an OBE for her services to journalism in 2024.

Speaker

Peter Williamson
Professor of International Management, University of Cambridge

Peter Williamson is Professor of International Management at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School and Fellow of Jesus College.

Peter divides his time between research, teaching, and consulting on internationalisation, M&A, and business ecosystem innovation, and serving as a non-executive director or chairman.

With a first degree in Economics, he began his business career with Merrill Lynch in London. After completing his PhD in Business Economics at Harvard University in 1984, he joined the Boston Consulting Group.

During his subsequent academic a career, he has held professorships at London Business School, Harvard Business School and INSEAD (in Fontainebleau and Singapore). He was elected Fellow of the Academy of International Business in 2018 in recognition of his contribution to the field.

In parallel, Peter has served as a non-executive director of both listed and private companies across a wide variety of industries, including: textiles; whisky; green energy; hedge funds; software; and sales training. He is currently Chairman of the fast-growing, digital process automation cloud services company Bizagi Group Inc.

Peter has also been visiting China regularly since 1983, assisting numerous multinationals, joint ventures, and Chinese companies venturing abroad.

He is the author of ten books, his latest being: Ecosystem Edge: Sustaining Competitiveness in the Face of Disruption. Other books include: The Competitive Advantage of Emerging Market Multinationals; Dragons at Your Door; Winning in Asia; and From Global to Metanational. His more than 60 other articles span Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Industrial Economics, and managerial pieces such as “Ecosystem Advantage: How to successfully harness the power of partners”; “The New Mission for Multinationals”, “Accelerated Innovation”, “Strategies for Competing in a Changed China” and “Is Your Innovation Process Global?” (all in the MIT-Sloan Management Review) and “How China Re-Set Its Global Acquisition Agenda”, “China’s Hidden Dragons”, and “How to Monetize a Business Ecosystem” (all in Harvard Business Review).

Speaker

Howard Yu
Professor of Management & Innovation, IMD

Howard Yu, hailing from Hong Kong, is LEGO® Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD. He leads the Center for Future Readiness, founded in 2020 with support from the LEGO Brand Group, to guide companies through strategic transformation.
Recognized globally for his expertise, in 2023 he was honored with the Thinkers50 Strategy Award, recognizing his substantial contributions to management strategy and future readiness. His additional inclusion into the Thinkers50 list places him among the top global management thinkers.

Today, Yu co-directs the Strategy for Future Readiness program and has delivered tailored training to global companies including ABB, Bosch, the LEGO Group, Novo Nordisk, Electrolux, Heineken, Maersk, Booking.com and many others.

His ongoing work has been published in journals such as Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. His case studies have won several awards from the European Foundation for Management Development and The Case Centre. He regularly appears on media outlets including Bloomberg, CNBC, and the BBC.

His book, LEAP: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied, published in 2018, has earned multiple awards, including an Axiom Business Book Awards Gold Medal and the strategy+business Best Business Book award. He joined IMD in 2011 after completing a doctoral degree at Harvard Business School. He worked in Hong Kong as a banker at the start of his career.

Speaker

Lina Žemaitytė-Kirkman
Certified Wellbeing consultant; CEO ROCKIT Vilnius

Lina Žemaitytė Kirkman is on a mission to promote digital wellbeing, bolster workplace productivity, and prevent digital burnout in our always-on digital world.

As a certified digital wellbeing consultant with an MSc in Business Psychology, Lina possesses in-depth knowledge of consumer behavior and 15 years of experience in the e-commerce, banking and innovation sectors. She takes a holistic view of the relationship between people and technology, aiming for technology to serve us, not the other way around.

Lina is a sought-after speaker on digital wellbeing, regularly invited to share her insights with companies, on radio and TV shows, and at conferences. She has been ranked as one of the Top 10 speakers at the LOGIN conference in Lithuania.

Currently, Lina also serves as the CEO of ROCKIT Vilnius, a financial technology and sustainable innovation center in Lithuania.