Business (C)

<p>As one of the leaders behind the fast-casual bakery and cafe concept, Ron Shaich has transformed the way America dines with his finger-on-the-pulse insights on the restaurant business and instinctive ability to know what the customer wants.</p><p>In 1981, Shaich co-founded Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. and Panera Bread, the two most successful bakery-cafe brands in the country. For more than 20 years, Shaich, now Executive Chairman of the Board of Panera Bread, served as Chief Executive Officer.

<p>Fearless leadership is the key to your team’s ability to reach peak performance – that’s the fundamental truth taught by Carey Lohrenz, the first female F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot. Drawing from her experiences making naval aviation history in the high-pressure environment of a U.S.

<p>Dr. Michio Kaku is an internationally recognized authority on theoretical physics and the environment and is co-founder of String Field Theory. Dr. Kaku’s engaging speaking style makes him one of the world’s foremost STEM advocates and science popularizers.</p>

<p>A renowned science expert, Dr. Kaku speaks passionately about topics ranging from teleportation, telepathy, and global climate change to alternative energy, psychokinesis, perpetual motion machines, and a binary star located 8,000 light years away.</p>

<p>When Ty Bennett was 21 years old, he and his brother started a business in direct sales, which they built to over $20 million in annual revenue while still in their twenties. Since that time, he has developed over 500 sales managers globally with sales and leadership in 37 countries.

<p>A best-selling author and entrepreneur, Polly LaBarre is an inspiring and provocative voice on the big ideas and important questions that will shape the future of organizations, work, and success.</p><p>As co-founder of the Management Lab, LaBarre spent the last decade working to develop a methodology, platform and practical tools for building organizational capability and accelerating change.

<p>Well before the era of “fake news” became, well, real, Scott Dikkers and his fellow founders at <i>The Onion </i>mocked popular culture and media tropes. Dikkers then went on to found the world’s first humor website, TheOnion.com.</p><p>From his experience in developing a creative culture of frank honesty and freedom at <i>The Onion</i>, Scott Dikkers shares how he built one of the most famous top comedy brands in the business.

Hailed as an expert on the future of travel, technology and urbanism by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN, Greg Lindsay, is a journalist, futurist and established authority on globalization and innovation.

Described as “intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking,” the two-time Jeopardy! champion (and only human to go undefeated against IBM’s Watson) has been invited to share his insights at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the U.S. State Department and with several Fortune 100 companies, including Google, Intel, Boeing and FedEx.

<p>Andy Papathanassiou became NASCAR’s first pit crew coach when hired by Hendrick Motorsports in 1992, as an original member of Jeff Gordon’s Dupont #24 race team. Prior to racing, Andy attended Stanford University on a football scholarship and started four years on the offensive line. </p><p>Andy graduated with his Bachelor’s in Economics and Master’s in Organizational Behavior. His philosophy and views as an outsider to NASCAR ultimately shifted the paradigm of how pit crews recruit, select and develop team members.

<p>When the most important work isn’t getting done, it’s not the people that need to be fixed – it’s the work. Lisa Bodell, a global leader on simplification, collaboration, and innovation, helps organizations transform performance by reimagining the work. By trading complexity for simplicity, organizations find new ways to unleash creativity and spark the energy so essential to innovate and compete. It also lifts morale, increases engagement, and improves employee well-being and retention.

<p>Robin Chase is a transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world; as well as co-founder of Veniam, a network company that moves terabytes of data between vehicles and the cloud. </p><p>Her recent book is <i>Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism</i>.