Leslie Odom, Jr.

Grammy and Tony Award Winning Artist

Leslie Odom, Jr. is a multifaceted Tony and Grammy Award-winning performer, best known for his breakout role as Aaron Burr in the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton. Odom’s self-titled debut album charted at #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and, in winter 2017, he topped the charts again with the re-release of Simply Christmas as a deluxe edition with new arrangements and new songs.

His extensive acting career includes film and television roles including Murder on the Orient Express, Red Tails, and Smash. In 2018, he added author to his resume with the release of his book, Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning.

This November, he will star alongside Cynthia Erivo and Janelle Monae in Harriet, a biopic about the extraordinary life of Harriet Tubman, and he will be in next year’s highly-anticipated film The Many Saints of Newark. Odom recently released his third full-length album and first of original material, entitled Mr on November 8, 2019.

Shawn Achor

Happiness Researcher and NYT Bestselling Author

Shawn Achor is the bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential. He spent 12 years at Harvard, where he won over a dozen distinguished teaching awards, and delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard. Shawn graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a Masters from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics.

Shawn has since become one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. Shawn has now worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, and with places like the NFL, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Treasury. To do his work, Shawn has traveled to 51 countries, speaking to farmers in Zimbabwe, CEOs in China, doctors in Dubai, and schoolchildren in South Africa. In 2014, Oprah Winfrey did a two-hour interview with Shawn on the science of happiness and meaning. His research on happiness made the cover of Harvard Business Review, his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with over 16 million views, and his lecture airing on PBS has been seen by millions.

Ed Catmull

Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios and President of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios

Dr. Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios. For over twenty-five years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing fourteen consecutive #1 box office hits, which have grossed more than $8.7 billion at the worldwide box office to date, and won thirty Academy Awards .

His book Creativity, Inc. — co-written with journalist Amy Wallace and years in the making — is a distillation of the ideas and management principles Ed has used to develop a creative culture. A book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, it also grants readers an all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation Studios — into the meetings, postmortems, and "Braintrust" sessions where some of the most successful films in history have been made.

Dr. Catmull has been honored with five Academy Awards , including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, for his lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the field of computer graphics for the motion picture industry. Dr. Catmull earned B.S. degrees in computer science and physics and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah. In 2005, the University of Utah presented him with an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Engineering.

Alexi Robichaux

Cofounder and CEO, BetterUp

Recognized as a leadership and development innovator, Alexi is the co-founder and CEO of BetterUp, the first leadership development platform to connect coaching to sustainable behavior change. As CEO, Alexi leads BetterUp on its mission to enable all professionals to live with greater clarity, purpose, and passion.

Prior to BetterUp, Alexi was Director of Product Management at VMware. He led product and design teams to build enterprise collaboration software that earned Gartner’s “best in class” distinction. He also witnessed the changing relationship between employees and employers that’ll be key to future human flourishing and innovation.

Alexi is Chairman of Youth Leadership America (YLA), a nonprofit he co-founded in 2003, to foster peer-to-peer leadership development and civic engagement in high school students.  YLA has collaborated with leading companies including Disney, Google, and Hilton Hotels to coach and mentor future leaders.

Alexi holds a B.A. in political science and non-profit management with Summa Cum Laude distinction from the University of Southern California.

B. Joseph Pine II

Co-Author of The Experience Economy and Co-Founder of Strategic Horizons LLP

Joseph Pine II is an internationally-acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.

He has authored and co-authored bestselling books including The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage which was named one of the 100 best business books of all time, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want which was featured in a cover story in TIME magazine on "10 Ideas that are changing the world,” and the award-winning Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition.

As a highly-sought speaker, Mr. Pine has addressed both the World Economic Forum and TED and taught at Penn State, Duke Corporate Education, the University of Minnesota, UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management, and the Harvard Design School. He serves on the editorial boards of Strategy & Leadership and Strategic Direction, and is a Senior Fellow with the Design Futures Council and the European Centre for the Experience Economy, which he co-founded.

Summer Davies

Global Senior Manager of Talent and Leadership Development, Mars

Summer Davies is a driven and enthusiastic leader, passionate about leadership and organizational performance. Her career started in the equine industry, and she joined Mars in 2007 to run a pet hospital. In 2010, Davies changed roles, finding her true home in leadership development. In her current role, Davies is responsible for global leadership development at Mars through Mars University.

Davies earned a B.A. in Equine Sciences and an M.Ed. in Organizational Development from Colorado State University. She remains a dedicated equestrian, and a sub-par but committed snowboarder. Davies lives with her husband and two beautiful daughters in Parker, Colorado.

Ajla Elian

Sr. Director, Talent and Leadership Development, Hilton

Ajla Elian is the Senior Director of Talent and Leadership Development at Hilton, where she is responsible for driving the company’s leadership development and talent management initiatives.

Currently, Ajla leads the quarterly talent review process, including analyzing talent information and succession planning in order to assess Hilton’s human capital health. Ajla is also responsible for

leading the design and execution of all global leadership development programs that support leadership development from entry-level through executive leadership.

Ajla holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus in Statistics from the University of Central Florida, and a Masters in Organizational Management from George Washington University.  Ajla is mother to a wonderful son and lives in McLean, Virginia.

Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, M.D.

Chief Innovation Officer, BetterUp

Gabriella is BetterUp’s Chief Innovation Officer and leads BetterUp Labs, a first-of-its-kind behavioral research lab bringing together business, academia, and science to study the inner lives of workers in order to craft coaching interventions that drive optimal performance.

Gabriella began her career in psychiatry, going on to amass expertise in behavioral change technologies, digital health, and virtual services. Prior to BetterUp, Gabriella co-founded LifeLink, served at the clinical advisory board at Castlight Health, and worked in the Department of Violence Prevention at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

Gabriella earned a B.S. in History of Science, summa cum laude, Harvard University, and her MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine.