Tony Chatman
Tony has worked with hundreds of corporations and government agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, Chase Bank, Estée Lauder, N.O.A.A. and N.A.S.A. to help people reach new heights of effectiveness by understanding themselves and others better. As a leadership keynote speaker, his passion is contagious, and his message provides practical, usable knowledge that people implement immediately for business and personal success. Tony’s ability to help leaders, team members, and people from every background and diversity adopt empowering mindsets and strategies that allow them to adapt, reinvent, and transform the results they produce both personally and professionally. Recognized for his stage presence and intensity, Tony delivers the kind of results that consistently garner outstanding and enthusiastic reviews. His profound ability to connect with every audience member ensures they come away feeling that he spoke directly to them and impacted by his message.
Tony was only the second African American to receive a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University’s prestigious Paper Science and Technology School. Upon completion of his degree, Tony worked for a number of years as a chemical engineer for a Fortune 500 company. It was during this phase of his life that he had a life changing interaction with an at-risk youth. This moment left such profound impression on him that he left both his corporate career (while nearing the completion of his first patent) and his graduate studies at the University of Chicago to work in the non-profit sector with the desire to make an impact on the communities around him. It was this work, which often included counseling groups and individuals that led Tony to begin studying human behavior with the intent or understanding what makes people tick, excel, and change.
Tony Chatman delivers presentations that are an entertaining and impassioned balance of both science and practical insight. Tony breaks down tough topics such as unconscious bias, change management and leadership. He creates a new, stronger foundation for true leadership. Audiences leave focused and motivated to turn individual differences into business advantages.
Currently, Tony serves as a board member for the Captain Phillips Lane Kirkland Maritime Trust.
Tony recently completed his first book: The Force Multiplier: How to Lead Teams Where Everyone Wins and in 2018 he delivered his first TEDx talk – How to Stop Settling for Less.
Walter Bond
Walter travels the country speaking, coaching, teaching, and inspiring companies across a wide range of industries, from financial services to agriculture and franchising to real estate and many more in between. At any given time, you can find Walter leading a mastermind class, offering one on one professional development, hosting book talks, and coaching hungry business leaders and entrepreneurs towards success.
While many know Walter Bond as a former NBA player, more and more people know Walter as a passionate and motivated speaker, author, and business transformation coach with one goal: to help people see their full potential. Walter always focuses on mastering the fundamentals of business. The only way a professional can reach their professional potential. The benefit to the audience, is that not only is Walter a Hall of Fame speaker based on his platform skills that are second to none, he is also teaching as he is performing for his audience. Leaving an audience entertained and educated. A rare gift!
Joe Gerstandt
Joe Gerstandt is a speaker, author and advisor bringing greater clarity, action, and impact to organizational diversity and inclusion efforts.
Joe has worked with Fortune 100 corporations, small non-profits, and everything in between. He speaks at numerous conferences and summits. He is a featured contributor for the Workforce Diversity Network Expert Forum and his insights have been published in Diversity Best Practices, Diversity Executive, HR Executive, and numerous other print and on-line journals. He co-authored the book Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships, and serves on the Intersectional Culture and Diversity Advisory Council for the social networking platform, Twitter.
A strong advocate for resetting the diversity and inclusion conversation, Joe sees this work as poorly understood and often misunderstood. His keynote messages and interactive workshops bring greater clarity, action, and impact to existing and new organizational diversity & inclusion efforts.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Since her first National Keynote at age 14, Ashley Rhodes-Courter has shared her story with thousands in the United States and in over 7 countries.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter, MSW, is the quintessential American success story. Born in 1985 to a single teen mother, by the age of 3 she was in Florida’s foster care system where she spent almost ten years being shuttled between 14 homes—some quite abusive—before being adopted from a Children’s Home at the age of twelve.
Despite her ordeal, she excelled in school because she believed that, “my education was the one thing nobody could take from me.” Early in her life she felt compelled to advocate for herself and the other children she lived with, particularly in the abusive foster homes.
Her efforts and academic achievements landed her Eckerd College’s Trustee Scholarship where she graduated with honors and ahead of schedule earning a double major in Communications and Theater and a double minor in Political Science and Psychology. Ashley then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California.
During her undergraduate studies, she was one of 20 college students selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic Team and was named one of GLAMOUR Magazine’s Top Ten College Women. She was also selected as one of the four Golden BR!CK Award winners for outstanding advocacy for community change by DoSomething!. As part of their campaign, she was featured on 25 million bags of Cool Ranch Doritos.
By the age of 22, Ashley had become a New York Times Bestselling Author. Her first book, “Three Little Words” is now an International Bestseller and has been published in at least 4 countries. Her second book, “Three More Words” debuted at #1 on Amazon Bestseller’s List. Both books are used in classrooms across the country in various community and First Year Experience Collegiate programs.
Ashley has received State, local, and National awards for her speaking, advocacy, and philanthropy. She has spoken on Capitol Hill and has been invited to the White House twice. “Three Little Words” is now being made into a major motion picture.
Simon Keith
Simon Keith is the first person in the world to play a professional sport after undergoing a heart transplant, having received the heart of 17-year-old welsh boy in 1986. Their story has been well chronicled including an ESPN E:60 feature, “A Change of Heart”.
Simon Keith is not just a former professional soccer player and one of the longest-living organ transplant recipients in the world, Simon is world renown speaker, having shared his remarkable story at the Whitehouse, as well as the British and Canadian Parliaments, and with audiences around the world. Captivating audiences with his incredible story, Simon challenges people to find their “moments of truth” and dares them to live.
After receiving the gift of life at just age 21, and in the middle of a remarkable soccer career, Simon resumed his soccer career at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), playing two seasons with the Rebels and garnering many honors, including being named Student-Athlete of Year for the Conference as well as being voted as the USA’s Most Courageous Athlete. After his senior season, Simon was named the Most Valuable Player at the Senior Bowl and was drafted #1 overall into the Major Indoor Soccer League. Simon was drafted #1 overall into the USA’s Major Indoor Soccer League just three years after his surgery.
In 2011, he founded The Simon Keith Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing organ donor awareness and supporting and educating transplant recipients. In 2018 The Simon Keith Foundation sponsored every child in the USA and Canada to attend the Transplant Games in their country.
His autobiography, Heart for the Game, details his unique life-journey, and he directs the proceeds from his book sales toward providing athletic training for other transplant recipients who undertake an active and healthy lifestyle.
In addition to his philanthropic efforts and professional soccer career, Simon is a successful entrepreneur who successfully built and sold 4 different companies over a span of 15 years. Most recently Simon served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Nevada Donor Network, a federally designated not-for-profit Organ Procurement Organization, leading the organization from a ranking of 53rd (out of 58) in the USA in 2011 to #1 in the USA from 2015-2019 (and the world) in terms of number of organ donors & organs recovered for transplant per capita.
Now one of the longest living organ transplant recipients in history, Simon has signed a major movie deal about his life with Kennedy Marshall Entertainment and the legendary movie producer Frank Marshall (Jurassic World, Jurassic World; The Fallen Kingdom, The Jason Bourne movies: Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum, Legacy, Jason Bourne, Sully, Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3 , Raider of the Lost Ark, and many, many more).
In 2018 Simon fell ill, as his heart and kidneys began to fail. (Heart transplants average longevity is just 10 years). In an astounding twist of fate, in March 2019, Simon underwent a second heart transplant, as well as kidney transplant. Against all odds, due to a complicated immune system, Simon stood less than a 1.75% chance of ever receiving the critical lifesaving gifts needed to save his life and continue this already, remarkable, story.
Simon belongs to the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame and the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2015 was named Canada’s Humanitarian of the Year.
In addition to Simon sharing his incredible story, Simon is considered an expert in leadership development, organizational culture, and entrepreneurship.
Jason Lauritsen
Jason Lauritsen is a keynote speaker, author, and consultant who will challenge you to think differently. He is an employee engagement and performance management expert who passionately believes that work can and should be a fulfilling experience for every employee.
Jason uses a blend of research, practical experience, and storytelling to empower managers to have a more positive impact on their people.
As both a former corporate executive and entrepreneur, Jason has always been dedicated to creating organizations that are good for both people and profits.
Jason also led the research team for Quantum Workplace’s Best Places to Work program for three years. There, he studied the employee experience at thousands of companies to understand what the best workplaces in the world do differently than the rest to engage their employees.
Jason is the author of the books Unlocking High Performance: How to use performance management to engage and empower employees to reach their full potential and Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships.
Gary Bradt
More than ever before, change and unrelenting disruption are causing employees to feel emotional fatigue, burnout, stress, anxiety, and myriad emotions that strip them of creativity, productivity and overall joy. Providing employees with more strategies to adapt to change with a growth mindset and resilient spirit are critical competencies that Dr. Gary Bradt has been teaching C-Suite leaders in Fortune 500s for 25+ years.
Today, he is being called upon by leading corporations to share his practical and actionable tools for change with employees at every level, so they can embrace change and create a positive path forward both professionally and personally.
Dr. Bradt’s unique background and perspective make him a one-of-a-kind speaker on emotional intelligence, change and leadership. As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Bradt shares relevant research from neuroscience and positive psychology to help leaders and people at every level approach change with a positive perspective.
As a business owner with 25+ years of experience coaching C-level executives, Dr. Bradt passes on practical strategies and tactics that businesspeople quickly comprehend and apply. As a thought leader on change and leadership, he is a contributing writer to Forbes.com and the author of three books on change.
Most importantly, however, Dr. Bradt is a father, who speaks from the heart about the tragedies, triumphs, and lessons he’s learned from raising a child with a chronic life-threatening heart condition.
It is no wonder, then, that the late Spencer Johnson asked Dr. Bradt to be the leading speaker worldwide for one of the bestselling business books of all time, Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? More than 300 keynotes and twenty-years later, Dr. Bradt is as passionate as ever about helping people find the opportunity that change always creates. He will inspire and empower your audience to change and win today.
Bill Rancic
Entrepreneur, Award-Winning Author, Motivational Speaker & Media Personality
After bursting on to the scene as NBC’s first Apprentice, Bill Rancic has traveled to every part of the globe, sharing his life experiences and business acumen with tens of thousands of leaders, businesses and organizations on a variety of important topics. His expertise ranges from why some companies thrive in chaos — and others don’t — to the leadership behaviors needed in a world beset by turbulence, uncertainty and dramatic change.
What makes Bill so unique is that he is both a student and teacher of leadership and has a healthy obsession with what makes great companies and leaders tick.
Having invested nearly two decades living the topic, Rancic has authored four books. These include New York Times best-seller You’re Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life, which examines how some companies and leaders make the leap to superior results; the enduring classic Beyond the Lemonade Stand which teaches young people empowers them with the value of both money and positive self-image. In addition, Rancic co-authored I Do… Now What? with celebrity wife Giuliana Rancic where they share secrets to a supportive love and true partnership in marriage. He also just penned his first novel, First Light.
Driven by a relentless curiosity, Rancic really began his business journey when graduated cum laude from Loyola University. He then went on to become a successful entrepreneur when he founded a monthly online subscription-based retailer. Since that time, he has inspired millions of people around the globe to work towards reaching their full potential, both in business and in their personal lives. He is currently co-owner of the RPM Restaurant Group and the Giuliana Prosecco.
Rancic appears regularly on numerous daytime broadcast and cable television programs such as Today, The View, Rachael Ray, Steve Harvey and various CNBC programs.
He currently resides in Chicago with his wife Giuliana and son Duke.
Ross Bernstein
The best-selling author of nearly 50 sports books, Ross Bernstein is an award-winning peak performance hall of fame business speaker who’s keynoted conferences on all seven continents and has been featured on thousands of television and radio programs including: CNN, “CBS This Morning,” ESPN, and Fox News, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today. Keynoting more than 100 live events globally per year, Ross’ passion is studying just what it is that makes the great ones great – and then translating that to business through his “Champion’s Code” program in order to help people not just win, but to win with integrity.
Lisa Ryan
As a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), an award-winning speaker and author of ten books, Lisa Ryan works with her clients to develop employee and client engagement initiatives and strategies that keep their top talent and best clients from becoming someone else’s.
Lisa’s expertise includes: strengthening workplace culture, improving employee engagement, increasing customer retention, and initiating gratitude strategies (“Grategies”) for personal and professional benefit. Lisa’s participants enjoy her high energy, enthusiastic delivery, and quick wit and they leave the session with ideas they are committed to acting on immediately to make positive workplace culture changes.
Lisa costars in two films with other experts including Jack Canfield of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” She is the Past-President of the National Speakers Association, Ohio Chapter, and holds an MBA from Cleveland State University.