Women and Leadership Keynote Speakers

Sir Ken Robinson is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to the government, non-profits, education and arts bodies.  Also known for his popular TED talks such as “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”.

In response to Sheryl’s 2010 TED Talk on the way’s women are held back—and the way that we hold ourselves back—viewers around the world shared their own stories of struggle and success.  This overwhelming response inspired Sheryl to write this book.  In Lean In, she shares her personal stories, uses research to shine a light on gender differences, and offers practical advice to help women achieve their goals.

Teaches leaders and organizations around the world about how to inspire people.  From members of Congress to foreign ambassadors, from small businesses to corporations like Disney and Intel, from Hollywood to the Pentagon, he has presented his ideas about the power of WHY.

Cuddy is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, where she studies how nonverbal behavior and snap judgements affect people from the classroom to the boardroom.

Charles Robert Redford Jr., known professionally as Robert Redford, is an American actor, director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist.  He is the founder of the Sundance Film Festival

In Thrive, Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post and one of the most influential women in the world, has written a passionate call to arms, looking to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world.

Daniel H. Pink is a best-selling author and has written five books about business, work, and management that have sold more than two million copies worldwide and have been translated into 35 languages.  He is also well recognized for popular TED Talks.

Grant is the author of three New York Times bestselling books: Give and Take (2013), Originals (2016), and Option B (2017), co-authored with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.  Also, in 2016, he delivered a Ted Talk on the habits of original thinkers.

Malcolm Gladwell, CM is an English-born Canadian journalist, best-selling author, and speaker.  He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996.  His popular book The Art of Battling Giants was a bestseller.

Peter Thiel is a German American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and hedge fund manager.  Thiel co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Elon Musk as well as serving as its CEO.  He also co-founded Palantir, of which he is chairman.  In Zero To One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator and founder of OBEY who emerged from the skateboarding scene.  Rich Miner is an investment partner on the GV team.  Miner joined the GV team in March 2009 and is based out of Cambridge, MA.

Jessica Herrin is CEO and Founder of the Stella & Dot Family of Brands. She has been featured on Oprah, the Today Show, and Undercover Boss, in Fortune, the NY Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and was included on Inc.'s list of top 10 Female CEOs. At the ripe age of 24, she dropped out of Stanford Business School to co-found the leading wedding site, WeddingChannel.com

Mau was the creative director of Bruce Mau Design, and the founder of the Institute Without Boundaries.  In 2010, Mau went on to establish The Massive Change Network in Chicago.  

Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.  She is the faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative and has chaired numerous HBS Executive Education programs.

Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He is an expert on word of mouth, viral marketing, social influence, and trends.

In this book, Whole Foods Market cofounder John Mackey and Conscious Capitalism, Inc. cofounder Raj Sisodia argue for the inherent good of both businesses and capitalism. 

Daniel M. “Dan” Pallota is an American entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian activist.  He is best known for his involvement in multi-day charitable events with the long-distance Breast Cancer 3-Day Walks and Aids Bicycle Rides. 

Clayton Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth.

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading public intellectuals on economic competitiveness, demographic trends, and cultural and technological innovation. 

Sallie Krawcheck is the CEO and Co-founder of Ellevest, a digital financial advisor for women launched in 2016.  She is focused on elevating women in the work force and ensuring they have equal ability to advance through the ranks.

Chris Guillebeau is an American nonfiction author, blogger and speaker.  He is best known for The Art of Non-Conformity blog and book.  He has also written guides for travel and small business topics under the brand Unconventional Guides.  He organizes the annual World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon.

Rubin is a writer on subjects of habits, happiness, and human nature.  She is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Better than Before, Happier at Home, and The Happiness Project.  Rubin’s books have sold more than two million print and online copies worldwide in over 30 languages. 

Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. Hence her motto: "Green the ghetto!"

Eric Ries is an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author of The Lean Startup, a book on the lean startup movement.  He is also the author of The Startup Way, a book on modern entrepreneurial management.

Rachel Botsman writes and researches about how technology is transforming trust and what this means for life, work, and how we do business.  Who Can You Trust? Is her second book, following the highly acclaimed What’s Mine is Yours.

Daymond Garfield John is an American businessman, investor, television personality, author, and motivational speaker.  He is best known as the founder, president, and CEO of FUBU, and appears as an investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank.  John is the founder of The Shark Group.

In 2005, world renowned professor W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne changed the international business landscape forever with their 100+ week international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy which would go on to sell more than 3.6 million copies. In Blue Ocean Shift.

Anjali Kumar is author, advisor, attorney, and “idea acupuncturist.” She was the Founding General Council and Head of Social Innovation at Warby Parker. Prior to Warby Parker she was the senior counsel at Google where she was a commercial and product attorney on areas ranging from Google X to YouTube.

As the woman who initiated GE’s Ecomagination clean-energy and its (and NBC’s) digital transformations, Comstock challenged a global organization to not wait for perfection, but to seek out emerging trends, embrace smart risks and test ideas boldly, and often. She shows how each one of us can become a “change maker” by leading with imagination. 

Nigel Travis has forty years of experience as a leader in large and successful organizations, as well as those facing existential crisis-such as Blockbuster as it dawdled in the face of the Netflix challenge. In his ten years as CEO and chairman of Dunkin’ Brands, Travis fine-tuned his ideas about the challenge culture and perfected the practices required to build it..

New York Time’s Bestselling author and Girls Who Code co-founder & CEO, Reshma Saujani, details the societal constructs that encourage men to speak up, get dirty, play rough, and climb to the top while discourage women to take risks, take a stand, to ask for what we want, and even make mistakes. Saujani began her career as an attorney and activist. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. 

Marcus is a global researcher and thought leader focused on unlocking people’s strengths, increasing their performance, and pioneering the future of how people work.

Marie is an obsessive learner who spends time reading, writing, producing and hosting MarieTV, creating and selling the world’s best online educational programs, running a socially-conscious digital company, and ironically-spending as much time offline as possible.

John Maeda is an American executive, designer, technologist. His work explores the area where business, design, and technology merge to make space for the "humanist technologist." 

Throughout her career Pauline Brown has helped to acquire, build, and lead global luxury brands. Pauline was the Chairman of North America at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Rana el Kaliouby is an Egyptian-American computer scientist and entrepreneur in the field of expression recognition research and technology development, which is a subset of facial recognition designed to identify the emotions expressed by the face.

Jeremy Gutsche, MBA, CFA, is the CEO of Trend Hunter -- the world's #1 trend website and innovation consultancy. In total, his team is relied on by 700 brands, billionaires, CEOs and world leaders to predict and create the future, including Google, Sony, Disney, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, IBM and Adidas. He's even helped NASA prototype the Journey to Mars!

Adrienne Bankert is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning correspondent for ABC News, Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and Nightline. She is also the author of the book Your Hidden Superpower: The kindness that makes you unbeatable at work and connects you with anyone.

Arlan Hamilton built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT.

Laura Huang professor at Harvard Business School whose research on interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship has been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Nature.

Kathy Caprino, MA is an internationally recognized career and leadership coach, writer, speaker, and educator dedicated to the advancement of women in business.