Todd’s journey towards authenticity began with degrees from the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee. Next came process improvement and team-building experience with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and Ernst & Young. He then earned a Ph.D. in Management from the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, as well as a prestigious Post Doctoral Fellowship, and eventually a position on the graduate faculty at Wright State University. After ten years in the classroom, early tenure, many awards, and many scholarly publications, the entrepreneurial spirit took over.
Todd left the ivory tower and now wears many hats: speaker, author, trainer, advisor, not to mention being the go-to leadership and life expert for millions of people through Lynda.com at LinkedIn. His library of work with Lynda.com has made him a two-time global best-seller earning praise from professionals in over 170 countries.
Mel Robbins is best known for delivering one of the most popular TEDxTalk’s in the world: “How To Stop Screwing Yourself Over”. Mel is a powerful keynote speaker who jumps into the audience (literally); creating motivational experiences with unforgettable engagement, surprising research, vivid imagery, original videos, and music. Mel is a third generation entrepreneur who’s launched and sold two companies and currently owns and operates a multi-million-dollar publishing and speaking business. Her provocative and compelling views on leadership, courage and human potential have earned her international attention and invitations to train executive teams at some of the world’s leading brands.
On February 28th, 2017, Mel's new book The 5 Second Rule will be available for purchase.
Patrick Sweeney is the son of a first generation Irish immigrant who paid his way through state college where he took up rowing. With just two years of experience he decided to take on the world and try out for the USA Olympic team. Five years later, he finished second in the Olympic trials and won national and international championships in the process.
After the Olympics, Patrick attended a Top 5 business school where he would earn his MBA and go on to start three technology companies worth millions of dollars, raising over $30 million in the process and successfully selling two of the companies. During the height of his business success he contracted a very rare form of Leukemia. The brush with death launched him on a path to find his genius what he calls the combination of passion and vocation and make friends with fear to discover his adventure within.
From the time the plane crashed on October 13, 1972 until their rescue on December 22, Nando and his fellow Uruguayan rugby teammates were forced to cross both physical and mental boundaries. After waking from a concussion only to learn that his mother had died on impact and his sister was near death, Nando became obsessed with surviving and emerged a hero after he and teammate Roberto Canessa walked for 10 days to find their salvation. Their story of courage, teamwork, determination and leadership, experienced at a level few have known, will leave you with a heightened awareness of the value of human life.
Soon after the rescue of the 16 survivors, Nando worked with Piers Paul Read, the author chosen by the survivors to pen the best-selling bookAlive, which was made into the film of the same name starring Ethan Hawke as Nando.
Nando is the author of the New York Times bestseller Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home. In 2010, Nando was featured in the History Channel documentary I AM ALIVE: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash, which continues to air around the globe.
In the 40 years since the crash, Nando has become a successful businessman and television producer. He is the CEO of four companies and hosts several popular television programs in Uruguay.In his spare time, Nando races motorcycles, sports cars, stock cars and watercraft.
Richard Resnick began his career working on the Human Genome Project as a software engineer under Eric Lander. Since then, he has gone on to bridge the research and commercial worlds as a serial entrepreneur.
Most recently, he led GQ Life Sciences, a company that focused on innovation in genomics and how industry players could best create competitive advantages using genomics. GQ Life Sciences was successfully acquired in late 2016.
Prior to GQ, he was the CEO of Harmony Line, Inc., an MIT Media Lab company, where he partnered with the famous composer/technologist Tod Machover to develop and commercialize music software and technology. Prior to Harmony Line, Resnick was the CEO of Mosaic Bioinformatics which he sold to NetGenics in 2000.
Beyond his success in business, Resnick consistently speaks to audiences about the history and promise of genomics.
