Gary is a relentless entrepreneur and driven philanthropist with a footprint on four continents; broad experience spanning entrepreneurship, M&A, business turnarounds, and Fortune 50 board directorships. Seasoned in structuring the macro-level dynamics of entrepreneurial ecosystems, Gary has been featured in industry-leading publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Inc. and the New York Times, and delivered over 50 presentations to audiences around the World on many topical facets of entrepreneurship.

Sooinn Lee designs award-winning learning games and assistive applications for children with special needs at LocoMotive Labs. Prior to founding LocoMotive Labs with her husband, she worked as a game designer in the MMO game industry for 12 years. Sooinn’s passionate belief in combining best game design practices with neuroscience research on learning helps her to create engaging educational applications for young children with special needs.

Wadhwa oversees research at Singularity University, which educates a select group of leaders about the exponentially growing technologies that are soon going to change our world. These advances—in fields such as robotics, A.I., computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine, and nanomaterials—are making it possible for small teams to do what was once possible only for governments and large corporations to do: solve the grand challenges in education, water, food, shelter, health, and security.

In his roles at Stanford, Duke, and Emory universities, Wadhwa lectures in class on subjects such as entrepreneurship and public policy, helps prepare students for the real world, and leads groundbreaking research projects. He is an advisor to several governments; mentors entrepreneurs; and is a regular columnist for The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal Accelerators, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, LinkedIn Influencers blog,and the American Society of Engineering Education’s Prism magazine. Prior to joining academia in 2005, Wadhwa founded two software companies.

Shanley Knox is a social entrepreneur and writer in New York City. Born and raised in Northern California, Knox launched her ethical accessories brand, Nakate, after working with communities in Port au Prince, Haiti and central Uganda. She believes in cultural reciprocity, and the power of smart business and international partnership.

Mark founded and co-created the Chicken Soup for the Soul series among others, which in total have sold over 500 million books. With over 305 best sellers, he has spoken to over six million people around the world at over 5,000 events. He is a successful business owner with companies in the USA and China. He is a passionately dedicated philanthropist, recipient of the prestigious award Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans, and the Sales Marketing International Salesman of the Year Award. Mark has also been awarded eight honorary doctorates from prestigious universities.

In addition to his varied business accomplishments, Achievers International recognizes Mark as one of the top five speakers in the world based on their worldwide survey. Mark has hosted two number one infomercials that were viewed over two years by over ten million people per day.

The Mark Victor Hansen Foundation that is dedicated to helping young people become financially literate, and to turn their entrepreneurial dreams into business achievements.
Mark is universally known for his almost 40-year career as a professional inspirational and educational speaker. His honors include founding member of the National Speaker Association and having achieved the coveted designation as a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP).

A social entrepreneur and mentor capitalist, Margarita Quihuis’s career has focused on innovation, technology incubation, access to capital and entrepreneurship. Her accomplishments include being the first director of Astia (formerly known as the Women’s Technology Cluster), a business incubator where her portfolio companies raised $67 million in venture funding, venture capitalist, Reuters Fellow at Stanford, and Director of RI Labs for Ricoh Innovations. She is currently a member of the research team at Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, and co-directs the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab where she conducts research on innovation, mass collaboration, persuasive technology & the potential of social networks to change society for the better. Her projects have included the study of collaboration and citizen engagement to foster government innovation – Manor Labs, bottoms-up post-disaster response and recovery – Relief 2.0 and advisory roles in citizen psy-op efforts such as the the Israel Loves Iran and Romancing the Border social media campaigns.

She is a recognized thought leader in the areas of innovation, emergent social behavior and technology and has been part of Deloitte’s On Social Roundtable and Aspen Institute’s Dialogue on Open Innovation and Dialogue on Diplomacy and Technology.

As Director of R I Labs for Ricoh Innovations she created a consumer focused innovation lab that focused on new market opportunities from generational behavior (Millenials), cloud and mobile computing, emerging social technologies, crowdsourcing and open innovation.

Laura E. Stachel, M.D., M.P.H. the co-founder and executive director of WE CARE Solar, is an obstetrician-gynecologist who left clinical medicine to pursue a career in public health. She holds an M.D. from University of California, San Francisco and M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from University of California, Berkeley, and is on staff at UC Berkeley. Laura has been studying energy poverty and its effects on rural health care for the last five years. Her research on maternal mortality in Nigeria alerted her to the deleterious effects of energy poverty on maternal health outcomes. Along with her husband, Hal Aronson, she co-founded We Care Solar, a non-profit organization that developed a simple “Solar Suitcase” to bring medical lighting and power to maternal and child health care in regions without reliable electricity.  We Care Solar Suitcases have now been deployed to hundreds of health facilities in over 25 countries. Laura co-chairs a international working group on Energy and Health for the UN Foundation, and has won numerous awards for her work with We Care Solar. This year she is one of the 2013 CNN Heroes.

Kay Koplovitz is the Founder of USA Network, and the Sci-Fi Channel and USA Networks International. She created the business model for cable networks by introducing the concept of two revenue streams – licensing and advertising. Ms. Koplovitz served as Chairperson & CEO until the company was sold for $4.5 Billion in 1998.

Ms. Koplovitz served as Chairman of the Board of Fifth & Pacific (Formerly Liz Claiborne Inc.) from January 2007 until May, 2013. She is also Chairman and Co-Founder of Springboard Enterprises the premier platform where entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts meet to build great women led businesses. Springboard educates, sources, coaches, showcases and supports high growth companies seeking equity capital for expansion. , Since its inception in 2000, Springboard Companies have raised over $5.5 Billion and created over 10,000 jobs.

Kay counts among her accomplishments the Presidential appointment as Chair of the National Women’s Business Council (1998-2001).

In recent years Kay has stepped into a leadership role in the area of Board Diversity and getting more women on boards joining the efforts of NYSE/Euronext, The Women’s Forum, Yale University and The Partnership for New York City, and Corporate Board Member.

In addition to Fifth & Pacific, Kay is a Board Member of CA Technology, and ION Media. She has also served on the boards of Oracle, Nabisco, Instinet and General Re.

She is the author of Bold Women, Big Ideas and speaks on the topics of women’s leadership especially in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Board Diversity and media. She is frequently interviewed on these subjects by news and media outlets including, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, Mergers and Acquisitions, CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg , Tech Crunch, Variety and others.

She serves as trustee of The Paley Center for Media as well as The University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Letters & Science. She holds a master’s degree in Communications from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin as well as honorary doctorate degrees from Emerson College, St. John’s University, Michigan State University and Canasius College. A native of Milwaukee, Ms. Koplovitz is married to private investor William C. Koplovitz, Jr.

Author, speech coach, and comedy guru Judy Carter knows the power of personal stories and teaches how to use them to get laughs, connect with clients, promote businesses, and discover the message of you.

Carter started her career as a magician and later became a headlining standup comic. She’s been featured on over 100 TV shows and nominated for Atlantic City’s Entertainer of the Year. Her first book, “Standup Comedy: The Book” (Random House) was featured on the The Oprah Winfrey Show. After Oprah’s recommendation, Judy became an in-demand comedy coach, working with America’s top comics as well as teaching comedy in China, Australia, Sweden, Russia and Germany.

On a mission to help out humor-impaired corporate America, Carter’s keynotes have been the subject of Wall Street Journal articles and have thrilled attendees at many Fortune 500 companies including Fedex, Oracle, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, and Boeing, as well as hundreds of finance, healthcare and women’s events.

When she’s not speaking, snowboarding, or scuba diving, Carter coaches speakers and comics in addition to writing books. She’s the author of The Comedy Bible (Simon & Schuster). Her latest book is The Message of You (St. Martin’s Press, 2013), which teaches readers how to use their life stories as business tools, as well as to remind themselves of what they stand for and what their life purpose is.

Carter is also a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

Her animals and spouse reside in Venice Beach, California, where they provide periodic accommodations to her.

Jill Belconis is the first woman to have been elected YPO International Chairman in the organization’s 60-year history. The Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) is a not-for-profit, global network of 20,000 CEOs. In her role as the “Leader of Leaders,” she traveled around the world motivating the CEOs and presidents of major companies.

Starting her career with a sales position in IBM Corporation, Jill was the first woman to be hired in the data processing division of her branch and exceeded all expectations in her first year. Then, changing fields, Jill became a residential mortgage loan officer – when interest rates peaked at 16% – quickly becoming the top producer and then moving into management where she honed her leadership skills.

For the past 20 years, Jill has served as the president of Shelter Mortgage Company and has successfully expanded the organization nationwide. Under her leadership, the company has formed more than 60 mortgage partnerships with real estate companies, builders, and relocation companies. Now, as the industry leader, Shelter Mortgage continues to grow with mortgage volumes exceeding $2 billion per year. Recognized as an expert in the field, Jill delivers keynote addresses at national conferences.

Jill will share her business expertise, leadership skills, and life experiences, demonstrating that she leads with her heart, not just her head. Jill is genuine and connects with every audience, both men and women. Her high energy and authentic personality are inspiring, and her powerful messages bring value and insight to everyone she reaches.

Jill resides in Chicago and is the proud mother of three wonderful kids: two boys and one girl.