Founder and CEO of The Rothkopf Group, David Rothkopf was the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Clinton administration, and, since, he has been a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a visiting professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and CEO of the Foreign Policy Group. A prolific author and journalist, he is also a co-host of the Deep State Radio podcast on Washington politics.

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. She covers politics and policy, foreign and domestic, and provides insight into the conservative movement, the Republican and Democratic parties, and threats to Western democracies. Rubin, who is also an MSNBC contributor, came to The Post after three years with Commentary magazine. Prior to her career in journalism, Rubin practiced labor law for two decades. She is a mother of two sons and lives in Northern Virginia.

Laurie Ruettimann is a former human resources leader turned writer, speaker, and entrepreneur known for her commonsense style and straightforward approach to workforce issues. A former HR executive, she is the creator of The Cynical Girl and Punk Rock HR websites and the host of the “Let’s Fix Work” podcast.

A professor at Occidental College, Russell has a Ph.D. in American history and has taught at Columbia University and The New School.

Robin Ryan is a career counselor who has been advising clients on improving their lives for over 25 years. She was called “the leading job search expert in America today” by NPR. A bestselling author, she has appeared on Oprah, Dr. Phil, CNN,NBC Nightly News, Fox, and NPR discussing career, job search, and post-retirement life/work issues.

Felix has been a staff writer for or freelance contributor to Conde Nast’s Portfolio, WIRED, Reuters, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Foreign Policy, Euromoney, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Slate, New York Magazine, and Medium, among others. He’s currently the chief financial correspondent and a weekly columnist at Axios, and he has hosted the Slate Money podcast since 2014.

A Yemeni peace activist, Al Samawi is interested in interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural outreach. He is a frequent public speaker and lecturer on the war in Yemen, the refugee crisis, and extremism in the Middle East.

An English professor at West Point, Samet received her BA from Harvard and her PhD from Yale. Soldier’s Heart won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest and was also named one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books in 2007.

The Washington Post’s Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa were key reporters on the newspaper’s award-winning series George Floyd’s America and contributors to the well-received Post Reports podcast episode on Floyd’s life.Samuels has earned distinction for his intimate reporting style while writing on-the-ground stories about politics, policy and the American identity, and contributed a chapter to The Post’s best-selling book, Trump Revealed. Samuels grew up in the Bronx and is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. At the Miami Herald, Samuels won several statewide awards for feature writing as an enterprise reporter. Since joining The Post in 2011, he has been a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and the Toner Prize for National Political Reporting, the nation’s premier award for political reporting.

Donald Sassoon is Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary, University of London. He was born in Cairo and educated in Paris, Milan, London and the USA. He obtained his PhD under Eric Hobsbawm’s supervision. In 2019, he won the Acqui Award of History (Premio Acqui Storia) for lifetime achievement in the field of history.

Thomas F. Schaller is professor of political science at UMBC, and the author of four books and hundreds of articles on American politics.

Bradley Schurman, Founder and CEO of Demogera, is one of the foremost experts in aging and longevity in the world. He has worked with some of the biggest organizations on these subjects and how they interact with living, working and learning, including AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), AEGON, IBM, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the World Economic Forum.

Evan I. Schwartz is author of The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit and the Birth of Television (HarperCollins), named one of the 75 best business books of all time by Fortune, and Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story (Houghton Mifflin). He is a former award-winning editor at Businessweek and MIT’s Technology Review and has been published in WIRED and the 2011 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. With Myrieme Churchill, an esteemed psychotherapist, he is writing Crossing Casablanca, a riveting memoir about Ms. Churchill’s early life.

Erich Schwartzel is an entertainment reporter at the Wall Street Journal’s Los Angeles bureau, where he covers all the major studios and theater chains and focuses on the growing entanglement of China and Hollywood. Before moving west, he spent several years covering fracking in Appalachia for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; his investigative work there won the Scripps Howard Award for Environmental Reporting.

Mark Sedgwick trained as a historian at Oxford University, taught for many years at the American University in Cairo, and finally moved to Denmark, where he is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University. He is also chair of the Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies. His work has focused mostly on Islam, Sufism, Traditionalism, and terrorism.

Laurie Segall is an award-winning investigative journalist known for her interviews with tech founders. Formerly the senior technology correspondent for CNN, she developed and hosted a series of docuseries that explored the impact of technology on sex, love, and death.

Elizabeth Shackelford was a foreign service officer with the State Department in Poland, Washington, South Sudan, and Somalia. She resigned in 2017 protest of President Trump’s policies in a letter to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, which went viral, and she now works as an international human rights consultant.

Oliver Shah is Associate Editor at the Sunday Times (London). He was named 'Business Journalist of the Year' at the British Press Awards 2017 for his investigation into Sir Philip Green’s £1 sale of BHS. He has appeared on Radio Four’s ‘Today Programme’, BBC News, BBC Five Live and Sky News.

He studied English literature at Cambridge University. He joined the London business daily City AM in 2009 and the Sunday Times in 2010.

Shannah Game is a Certified Financial Planner (non-practicing) and Certified Trauma of Money Specialist with an MBA who waved goodbye to the traditional finance world in 2018 when her podcast, Everyone’s Talkin’ Money (previously Millennial Money) blew up. Everyone’s Talkin’ Money has amassed over 24 million downloads, has been named one of The NY Times' Top 4 Money Podcasts. Shannah also appears ontwo to three other podcasts a month, averaging another 200,000 - 500,000 downloads per month and speaks at colleges and organizations throughout the year.

Shabtai Shavit served in Israeli intelligence for 32 years, where he rose to become the Director of Mossad from 1989-1996. He received a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University’s The Kennedy School of Government and is currently the Chairman of the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Molly D. Shepard is President & Chief Executive Officer of The Leader’s Edge/Leaders By Design, a company dedicated to the advancement of executive and high-potential leaders. She speaks frequently to business groups about leadership, bullying, and women in the workplace and has been profiled in Smart CEO, Forbes, and Philadelphia Business Journal among others.

White hat lobbyist Tom Sheridan is described as a “powerbroker for those without a voice.” A social worker by training and an advocate by trade, Tom brings a unique perspective to his work as one of Washington’s most senior political and public policy strategists. Tom is known on Capitol Hill and in the West Wing for using his deep understanding of the political process and decades-long relationships with senior members of Congress and top Administration officials to help organizations achieve scalable, positive social change.

Craig Shirley is the author of four bestsellers on former U.S. president Ronald Reagan – Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America, Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All , Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan, and Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years, 1976-1980. Craig is the founder of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, was chosen in 2005 by Springfield College as their Outstanding Alumnus, and has been named the First Reagan Scholar at Eureka College, Ronald Reagan’s alma mater, where he taught a course titled “Reagan 101.”

A former member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Shriver is Save The Children’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Senior Advisor to the CEO.

Risto Siilasmaa is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nokia Corporation and has led the company in one of the most successful corporate transformations ever. Through as series of transactions that he orchestrated, Nokia has transformed from a bankruptcy candidate to a successful global technology leader. Siilasmaa is also the founder of F-Secure Corporation, a Finnish internet security service provider, and served as the President and CEO of the company between 1988-2006.

Michael J. Silverstein is a senior manager and partner at The Boston Consulting Group and author of several books, most recently The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India (Harvard Business Review Press), with Abeam Singhi, Carol Liao, and David Michael; and Women Want More (Harper Business), with Kate Sayre and John Butman.

Nick Sinai is a venture capitalist, former Harvard faculty member, and a former senior White House official. Together, coauthor Marina Nintze, he successfully built and led a disruptive team inside the largest bureaucracy in the world—the U.S. government.

Award-winning designer Jens Martin Skibsted is the founder of numerous design companies, the Global Partner & VP, Foresight & Mobility at Manyone, and a designer whose work has been collected by MoMA. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's think tanks and has published in The Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is CEO of New America, a think and action tank dedicated to renewing America in the Digital Age. In 2012 she published the article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” in The Atlantic, which quickly became the most read article in the history of the magazine and helped spawn a renewed national debate on the continued obstacles to genuine full male-female equality.

Chris Smalls is the founder and president of the Amazon Labor Union, an independent, democratic, worker-led labor union at Amazon in Staten Island.

Talmon Joseph Smith is an economics reporter for the Business section ofThe New York Times. He covers nationwide macroeconomic developments, labor markets and the intersection of financial markets with pocketbook issues. He was a 2023 finalist for the University of Michigan Livingston Award for outstanding reporting by journalists under the age of 35. He has written forThe Atlantic, The New Republic and other national outlets. He previously worked at GQ Magazine. He began his career as a scholar in residence at the NYU Journalism Institute. He lives in New York and his first book is forthcoming from Atria in 2026.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the voice of all things work, workers and the workplace and the foremost expert, convener and thought leader on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces. With 300,000+ HR and business executive members in 165 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 115 million workers and families globally.

Gay rights advocate Marc Solomon is the author of the definitive history Winning Marriage: The Inside Story of How Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits—and Won (ForeEdge). He served as National Campaign Director of Freedom to Marry until its dissolution in 2015 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling in favor of marriage equality. He was also executive director of MassEquality from 2006 to 2009.

Nick Sonnenberg is the founder and CEO of Leverage, a business efficiency consultant, Inc. columnist and author of the book Idea to Execution. As a serial entrepreneur with a passion for productivity and a background in data science, Nick’s mission is to create companies that disrupt the way people work by leveraging the power of outsourcing, remote teams, common tools, and automation. Nick has worked with individuals and companies of all sizes, including Tony Robbins, Jay Abraham, Joe Polish, Ethereum and more.

Jason Sperling serves as SVP, Chief, Creative Development at RPA Advertising in Los Angeles, where he spear-heads marketing efforts for Honda North America, Amazon, TikTok, UNICEF Worldwide, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, and the LGBT Center in Los Angeles. Jason's work has won the Cannes Gold and been nominated for an Emmy, and his Super Bowl commercials for Honda have landed on all-time best lists. He has been a professor-in-residence at the University of Texas and has spoken to advertising federations across the nation, including at Cannes, SXSW, and TEDx.

Ed Stack is the CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods.

Allison Stanger is the Leng Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, and the author of WHISTLEBLOWERS: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump.

Alexandra Steinacker-Clark is an American-Austrian art historian, curator, writer and podcaster. She lives and works in London, UK. She obtained her BA in History of Art at University College London and continued her education at Goldsmiths University with an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy. Her specializations are in contemporary art and the contemporary art market along with accessibility, engagement, and the demystification of the professional art sector. She is the founder and host of the 'All About Art' Podcast, Board Member of SALOON Network, and a TEDx speaker. She is the co-director of NXT GEN: AWITA x All About Art Programme and has previously worked at Gallery Max Hetzler, Skarstedt Gallery, Shezad Dawood Studio, and Sotheby’s Auction House.

Greg Steinmetz grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and spent fifteen years as journalist for publications including the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, New York Newsday, and The Wall Street Journal, where he served as the Berlin Bureau Chief and later the London Bureau Chief. He currently works as a securities analyst for a money management firm in New York. He is a graduate of Colgate University and has a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He has three children and lives in Larchmont, New York.

Todd Stern is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution concentrating on climate change, and advising about ongoing efforts on climate change at both the international and domestic levels. Stern served as the special envoy for climate change at the Department of State and as President Obama’s chief climate negotiator, leading the U.S. effort in negotiating the Paris Agreement and in all bilateral and multilateral climate negotiations in the seven years leading up to Paris. Stern has taught and lectured at Yale Law School and Brown Universities. He has written for various publications, including The Washington Post, The Atlantic,The American Interest, and The Washington Quarterly and has appeared on CNN, BBC, MSNBC, and NPR, among others.

Stillman’s books include Blood Brothers (Ohioana Book Award Winner; Kirkus Reviews, starred review; “Best of the West 2018,” True West Magazine); Desert Reckoning (winner of the Spur and LA Press Club Awards for Nonfiction, an Amazon Editors Pick, based on a Rolling Stone piece), and Mustang, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. In addition, she wrote the cult classic, Twentynine Palms, a Los Angeles Times bestseller that Hunter Thompson called “A strange and brilliant story by an important American writer.” She's a member of the core faculty at the UC Riverside-Palm Desert MFA Low Residency Creative Writing Program, where she teaches nonfiction.

William Sturkey is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. His book Hattiesburg won the Zocalo Book Prize, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, on NBC News, and elsewhere.

Mathew Sweezey is Principal of Marketing Insights at Salesforce.com, and recently wrote Marketing Automation for Dummies, which was published by Wiley.

One of President Obama’s longest-serving speechwriters, Terence Szuplat was the deputy director of the White House Speechwriting Office during Obama’s second term. Before the White House, he served as chief speechwriter to the Secretary of Defense and a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and worked as a freelance speechwriting consultant. As the founder of Global Voices Communications, Szuplat now shares his speechwriting expertise through multimedia keynote presentations and hands-on workshops. He has served on the Biden for President National Finance Committee, as an advisor to National Security Action, and as a board member for Legacies of War.

Established in 1872, The Boston Globe is Boston and New England’s leading source for breaking news and analysis, with coverage from across the world. The Boston Globe has been awarded 26 Pulitzer Prizes throughout its history.

Anne Bahr Thompson is a leader in the branding field who has spent more than two decades working with some of the best-known brands in the world. She is the founder of Onesixtyfourth, a boutique research, trend, and brand consultancy based in New York City and former Executive Director for Strategy and Planning at Interbrand, the leading global brand consultant.

James Timpson (Baron Timpson of Manley, OBE) is Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, and was previously Chief Executive of the Timpson Group for twenty-two years. His book, The Happy Index: Lessons in Upside-Down Management (2024), was a Sunday Times bestseller.

As CEO of the Timpson Group, he helped the business grow to over 2,100 shops and pioneered the recruitment of ex-offenders. He has served as Chair of the Prison Reform Trust and supports various prison charities and support groups. He was presented with an OBE in 2011 for the training and employment of disadvantaged people. He is also a Tate Trustee, a Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire and an Albert Medal winner from the RSA.

He lives in Cheshire with his wife Roisin and their 3 children.

Noa Tishby is an Israeli actress, producer, and activist. She starred on the hit Israeli television show Ramat Aviv Gimmel, and created a pathway for Israeli content to be sold into the United States entertainment industry. An unofficial ambassador for the State of Israel, Tishby helped found “Act for Israel,” the first online rapid-response advocacy group devoted to correcting misinformation about Israel and the Middle East.

Jennifer Tosti-Kharas is an Associate Professor of Management at Babson College, in Greater Boston. She has recently authored a textbook, Organizational Behavior: Developing Skills for Managers (with Eric Lamm, Pearson, 2020), edited a careers research compendium, Handbook for Research Methods in Careers (with Wendy Murphy, Edward Elgar, 2021), and finished her fifteenth year teaching people, among other things, how to get what they want from their work.

Anjani Trivedi is the Economist's global business correspondent, reporting on global industry trends. Previously, she covered industrial companies across Asia-Pacific for Bloomberg Opinion, and was a columnist for ‘Heard on the Street’, the Wall Street Journal's financial market analysis and commentary column.

Terence Tse is a globally recognised educator, author, and speaker. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of Nexus FrontierTech, an artificial intelligence company. Terence is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School.

Jing Tsu is Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures & Comparative Literature at Yale University, where she is the chair of the Council on East Asian Studies. Tsu is a 2016 Guggenheim fellow and the author of two scholarly books, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895-1937 (Stanford University Press) and Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora (Harvard University Press).

Deborah Tuerkheimer is a professor of law at Northwestern University where she teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law, evidence, and feminist legal theory. Tuerkheimer is a leading authority on sexual violence and a frequent media commentator who’s often quoted in high-profile publications such as the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post and The Atlantic and frequently appears on national television and radio.

Steven Ujifusa is the author of Barons of the Sea, an LA Times bestseller, and A Man and His Ship, chosen by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of 2012. He received his B.A. in History from Harvard College and his Master’s in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.

Award-winning former editor-in-chief of Boston Magazine, and a longtime contributor to Vanity Fair, Unger is the author of the New York Times bestseller House of Bush, House of Saud. His work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere.

Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh was born in Singapore in 1977. He is currently Editor-in-Chief at Jom, a new weekly digital magazine covering arts, culture, politics, business, technology and more in Singapore, and is a freelance contributor to the Economist’s Intelligence Unit.

From 2006-13 he worked for the Economist in Singapore, first as Associate Director at the Economist Corporate Network, then Senior Editor at Economist Insights. He has written for a variety of publications, including the Economist and the Straits Times.