We have three incredible keynote speakers, all with various backgrounds in business, entrepreneurship, leadership and the trades.
An entrepreneur in every sense of the word, Daymond John has come a long way from taking out a $100,000 mortgage on his mother’s house and moving his business operation into its basement. John is CEO and Founder of FUBU, a much-celebrated global lifestyle brand, and a pioneer in the fashion industry with billions in product sales world-wide. Former President Barack Obama appointed Daymond John a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) to harness his energy, ideas, and experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs both at home and abroad.
John is an award-winning entrepreneur and has received 100s of awards including the Brand Week Marketer of the Year, Advertising Age Marketing 1000 Award for Outstanding Ad Campaign, Ernst & Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and was named #2 on LinkedIn’s Top 20 Voices, a list of the top influencers, who are using their voice to help us analyze today’s changing world of work, navigate our industries, and find balance. Most recently, Real Leaders Magazine named Daymond John one of the Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World in 2023, a list of “real teachers — people who speak from experience.”
His marketing strategies and ability to build successful brands has made him a highly influential consultant and motivational speaker today. His marketing firm The Shark Group offers advice on how to effectively communicate to consumers through innovative means and connects brands with the world’s top celebrities for everything from endorsements to product extensions.
John is also an author of 6 best-selling books including his latest New York Times bestseller, The Power of Broke (2016) and Rise and Grind (2018). In 2020, John released his fifth book, Powershift, that walks through his tried-and-true process of how to transform any situation, close any deal and achieve any outcome. John’s most recent book, Little Daymond Learns to Earn (2023) is his first for kids, reached the New York Times and Amazon best-seller list the first week of its release. The book addresses the current void of educating our children about money in a fun and engaging story for parents and kids to connect. John’s mission is to continue challenging the status quo and leave a lasting legacy of inspiring other leaders to do the same.
Finally, John is celebrating his 15th season on ABC TV’s critically acclaimed business reality show Shark Tank by renowned producer Mark Burnett, which has reinvigorated entrepreneurship around the world. Shark Tank has now gone on to win five Emmy® in the US and millions of weekly viewers world-wide tune into the show as John demonstrates his marketing prowess and entrepreneurial insights.
Kristen Hadeed believes that authentic, human leadership can change the world.
At 19, with hardly any leadership experience, she started a cleaning business called Student Maid. Before she graduated, her company received a contract to clean hundreds of apartments—and it changed her path forever.
Over the next 14 years, Kristen learned a lot by screwing up. But most importantly, she learned how to lead from her heart. Doing so helped her take Student Maid from a small cleaning company to a business known on a global scale for its culture of belonging, its focus on people, and its purpose of building leaders.
Today, she spends her time helping leaders, teams, and organizations around the world ignite the kind of human leadership that builds trust, belonging, and wildly engaged cultures.
Her work has been featured in news outlets including PBS, FOX, Inc., NBC, TIME, and Forbes. Her book, Permission To Screw Up, has sold more than 50,000 copies worldwide.
Author and Entrepreneur Gary Schoeniger is an internationally recognized thought leader in the field of entrepreneurial mindset education. His message has influenced a broad audience from academic institutions and economic development organizations to government and non-profit clients worldwide including the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute, the Colombian Ministry of Education, the U.S. State Department, and the European Commission.
In addition to his latest book, The Entrepreneurial Mindset Advantage, Schoeniger, along with Pulitzer nominee Clifton Taulbert, is also the co-author of Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur, an international bestseller described as “required reading for humanity.”
As the Founder and CEO of the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative, Gary led the development of the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program, which has been recognized by the Kauffman Foundation as “redefining entrepreneurship education in classrooms and communities around the world.” The Ice House Program has been featured at the United Nations General Assembly, the Papal Council for Peace and Justice at the Vatican, and the European Commission in Brussels.
With his focus on the entrepreneurial mindset, Gary has presented numerous keynotes, workshops, and training programs throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Rio de Janeiro and Moscow as well as speaking and training programs in Cape Town, Yaoundé, Athens, London, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Monterrey, Sofia, Santiago, Aberdeen, Nicosia, Zagreb, Tbilisi, and Baku.
Gary is a former member of the Forbes Business Council, where he published several articles highlighting the entrepreneurial mindset. He also served on the Dean’s Council at Purdue Polytechnic Institute, and was an advisory council member for Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Tec21 model to produce graduates in Mexico with an entrepreneurial spirit and humanistic outlook for the 21st Century. Gary also served as a past board member for the Hershey Montessori School in Concord, Ohio.