UNLEASH AMERICA: where the hr world meets you

Sir Richard Branson has grown successful businesses in sectors including mobile telephony, travel, transportation, financial services, leisure, entertainment, health and wellness. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Virgin is a leading international investment group and one of the world’s most recognised and respected brands.

Branson has also been an active investor in the technology sector and a number of innovative transport companies – including Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit and is currently chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One.

Since starting youth culture magazine, Student, at aged 16, Richard Branson has found entrepreneurial ways to drive positive change in the world. In 2004 he established Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group, which unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world.

Most of Branson’s time is now spent building businesses that will make a positive difference in the world and working with Virgin Unite and organisations it has incubated, such as The Elders, The Carbon War Room, The B Team and Ocean Unite. He also serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy and supports ocean conservation with the Ocean Elders.

Arianna Huffington is the founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of 15 books, including, most recently, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely read, linked to, and frequently cited media brands on the Internet. In August 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a corporate and consumer well-being and productivity platform with the mission of changing the way we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success.

She has been named to Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.

She serves on numerous boards, including Uber, Onex, and Global Citizen.

Her last two books, ‘Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder’ and ‘The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night At A Time’, both became instant international bestsellers.

Gary Vaynerchuck is described as one of the most forward thinkers in business. His expertise in anticipating patterns helps entrepreneurs understand how these shifts influence markets and customers.

Gary is an entrepreneur at heart – he builds businesses. The founder of a digital empire – Gary is also the CEO of VaynerMedia, a full-service advertising agency servicing Fortune 1000 clients from 4 offices spread across the globe: New York, Los Angeles, London and Singapore.

He is the Co-Founder of VaynerSports, Resy and Empathy Wines and chairman of VaynerX – a holding company that includes 8 companies in total: VaynerProductions, Gallery Media Group, The Sasha Group, Tracer, VaynerSpeakers, VaynerTalent and VaynerCommerce.

He is the author of 5 New York Times bestsellers and has over 30 million followers in the digital space.

Carla Harris is Vice Chairman, Global Wealth Management and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley and a leading keynote speaker on motivation, success, and exceeding expectations. The recipient of numerous awards, including being named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America,” Harris was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council in 2013. She is the author of two best-selling books.

Harris has 30 years of Wall Street experience, and formerly led Morgan Stanley’s Emerging Manager Platform, the equity capital markets effort for the consumer and retail industries. For more than a decade, she was a senior member of the equity syndicate desk at Morgan Stanley. In this role, she executed enormous transactions including the initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi Automotive, and the $3.2 Billion common stock transaction for Immunex Corporation, one of the largest biotechnology common stock transactions in US history.

Harris has been named to Fortune’s magazine’s “Most Influential List,” US Bankers “Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance” in 2009, 2010, and 2011, Black Enterprise’s “Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business” in 2017, as well as the “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street.” She was also named to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World,” and “15 Corporate Women at the Top,” and was named “Woman of the Year” in 2004.

Harris is a member of the board of overseers of Harvard University and of the board of directors of the Walmart Corporation.

Simon Sinek is an unshakable optimist who believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together. He discovered remarkable patterns about how the greatest leaders and organizations think, act and communicate.

Simon may be best known for popularizing the concept of WHY in his first TED Talk in 2009. It rose to become the third most watched on TED.com, with over 40 million views and subtitled in 47 languages.

Simon is the author of multiple best-selling books including Start With Why (global bestseller), Leaders Eat Last (New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller), Together is Better (New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller), Find Your Why and The Infinite Game.

Psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author Esther Perel is recognized as one of today’s most insightful and original voices on modern relationships. Fluent in nine languages, she helms a therapy practice in New York City and serves as an organizational consultant for Fortune 500 companies around the world.

Her celebrated TED talks have garnered more than 20 million views and her international bestseller Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence became a global phenomenon translated into 25 languages. Her newest book is the New York Times bestseller The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity (HarperCollins). Esther is also an executive producer and host of the popular podcast Where Should We Begin? Learn more at EstherPerel.com or by following @EstherPerelOfficial on Instagram.

Sir Bob Geldof is an Irish singer, song-writer and prominent campaigner on global poverty issues. Bob Geldof is also an exceptional motivational speaker!

Sir Bob originally came to prominence as front man of the band The Boomtown Rats. In 1984, he watched a BBC documentary on Ethiopian poverty and was inspired to co-write, with Ultravox front man Midge Ure, the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” It featured a large number of British pop stars performing under the name Band Aid and became the best-selling single in UK history. Sir Bob followed this with a massive charity concert that eventually became Live Aid, two marathon shows held on July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London and at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, featuring a who’s who of pop and rock talent. Millions were raised and distributed to the African poor.

Ever since, Sir Bob has continued his campaign against poverty and famine in Africa, including the 2005 Live 8 concerts, which aimed to put pressure on G8 leaders to contribute more aid to Africa, cancel African debts and remove trade barriers that made African nations less competitive.

He has been nominated seven times for The Nobel Peace Prize and received a knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

In 2012, Sir Bob’s private equity fund “8 Miles” closed for the first time, raising £200 million, which is currently actively investing in Africa.

Rachel Botsman: Trust Expert | Lecturer: Oxford University I Author: ‘Who Can You Trust?’

Rachel Botsman is a trust expert, author and a lecturer at Oxford University. She is passionate about teaching people how to think differently and challenge ideas around trust, and humility.

She has been recognized as one of the world’s 30 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, one of the Top 10 most influential voices in the UK on LinkedIn and honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Her TED talks have been viewed more than five million times.

Rachel is the author of two critically acclaimed books, “What’s Mine is Yours” and “Who Can You Trust?”. Through her popular newsletter, Rethink, Rachel warmly engages with a community of over 35,000 subscribers every fortnight.

She lives in Oxford with her husband and two children.