Leadership and Responsible Business Stage

Known as the "Quincy Jones of Social Impact," Mohan is a movement entrepreneur, executive leader, artist, and founder of Harmonious Leadership. A former CEO of Our Turn and Co-Founder of Dads for All, he drives systemic change across corporate social responsibility, education, and philanthropy. Recognized as a NY Nonprofit Media "40 Under 40 Rising Star," Mohan is an award-winning filmmaker and songwriter whose thought leadership has been featured by TED, ESPN, and the World Economic Forum.

Michael Pirson, PhD, is the James A. F. Stoner Endowed Chair in Global Sustainability and is a full professor with a focus on global sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Pirson is a research associate at Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program (HFP). He co-founded the Humanistic Management Network and is founder and president of the International Humanistic Management Association. He is the editor in chief of the Humanistic Management Journal. Pirson's research spans various areas in the field of humanistic management, including psychological and social psychological work on individual differences in mindfulness, trust, and well-being; organizational research on corporate governance, stakeholder trust, and social innovation; and conceptual and philosophical research on freedom, dignity, and well-being. He is actively exploring the role of higher education in positive change-making and social innovation, leading global efforts to transform business education (including with the Jesuit Network, Ashoka, UN, etc.). Pirson is a full member of the Club of Rome, leads the Humanistic Management working group at the UNPRME, and advises a number of social enterprises. He has won numerous awards for his work including from the Academy of Management and the Association of Jesuit Universities. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Organizational Behavior (2009) at Harvard University. He holds a doctorate in Organizational Behavior (2007) from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, a Master of Business Administration (1999) from University Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany, and Indiana University, a Master of Public Administration (Diplome de Sciences Po) (1997) from the Institute of Political Sciences, Strasbourg, France and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (1996) from the University Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany.

Jess Goldberg is a leadership communication expert and C-suite coach. Named one of Real Leaders' Top Keynote Speakers for 2026, she advises executive teams at companies including Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, and Notion to drive influence, align complex dynamics, and build high-performing teams. A former VP at an AI robotics company, a two-time Emmy-winning ABC News journalist, and a Fulbright Fellow, her insights are regularly featured in Forbes and TIME. Goldberg equips leaders with actionable tools, including her widely used 50-card leadership framework deck to turn strategic vision into decisive alignment, trust, and execution.

Joseph King Barkley is President of the Meta Performance™ Institute, a Partner at Novus Global, an executive coach, author, and keynote speaker. An entrepreneur who has built and scaled organizations across multiple industries, he specializes in leadership development and organizational performance. Barkley has coached high-performing executive teams and spoken to global audiences of up to 22,000 people.

Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky is a workplace belonging expert and keynote speaker who has delivered 700 keynotes to 500,000 people across 25 countries, with a popular TED talk viewed over 2 million times. He works with top organizations — including Apple, Google, Verizon, JPMorgan Chase, Mayo Clinic, and the U.S. Navy — to build high-performing teams, boost engagement, and retain talent across generations. Smiley is the bestselling author of four books, including The Workplace Belonging Toolkit and Friendship in the Age of Loneliness, and his insights are regularly featured in publications like Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

Jon Symes is a global speaker, author, and leadership thinker with over 30 years of experience challenging how leaders approach identity, culture, and transformation. Having lived in four countries, his work bridges worlds — spanning advice to C-suite executives, collaboration with Indigenous elders in the Amazon, and work with entrepreneurs in India's slums. This broad cross-cultural perspective allows him to surface the unseen forces and inherited stories that quietly drive executive decision-making. Author of the forthcoming book The Stories That Are Killing Us, Symes blends narrative psychology, sharp wit, and strategic insight to help leaders master narrative literacy as a core business capability, dismantle limiting assumptions, and build high-trust cultures.

Prudence Pitter is a global keynote speaker, transformative leadership coach, and HR consultant with over 30 years of experience driving HR strategy across 20+ countries. Named to the 2025 "50 Women to Watch" list by 50/50 Women on Boards, she guides organizations through complex cultural shifts, mergers, and billion-dollar expansions. An educator at Fordham and dedicated philanthropist, Prudence empowers leaders to achieve sustainable growth by prioritizing inclusion, wellbeing, and human-centered strategy.

Timothy de Waal Malefyt, PhD, is an industry savvy marketer and cultural communicator with broad experience in the world of practice — formerly serving as VP, director of consumer insights at BBDO Worldwide advertising — and in the world of academia, as a business anthropologist and marketing professor at Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business. His extensive knowledge of brand strategy and consumer culture has helped develop insights and bridge the academic-practitioner divide for blue-chip companies such as AT&T, Campbell's soup, eBay, FedEx, GE, Gillette, HBO, J&J, MasterFoods, New Balance, P&G, and PepsiCo. Before joining BBDO, he served as senior account planner and brand strategist at D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles advertising in Detroit, where he led insights for the successful relaunch of the Cadillac automobile brand. Malefyt is the editor of the book series "Business Anthropology" for Routledge publishers. He earned a master's degree and PhD in Anthropology from Brown University, and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. He was the recipient of Fulbright and NSF research grants to study performance and symbolism in Spain. Prior to earning his master's degree, he was a professional ballet dancer with the Joffrey Ballet School and performing company. Malefyt has published six academic press books, numerous book chapters and research articles in leading journals. He is quoted in popular media, including Adage, Adweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, USA Today and The New York Times, and has appeared on NY1 and ABC News. He has hosted three international conferences at the Gabelli School: EPIC in 2014, the Business Anthropology Global Summit in 2019, and the Anthropology Careers in Industry conference in 2022.

Everett Harper is an award-winning CEO, tech founder, author, and former Practitioner Fellow at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS). A rare combination of a Silicon Valley executive and NCAA National Champion at Duke, he has built a proven track record leading teams through complex organizational challenges and high-stakes uncertainty. He is the author of Move to the Edge, Declare It Center, written in response to compounding global disruptions and polycrisis. His research at CASBS explored Connected Resilience as a model for expanding collective organizational capacity, alongside the role of AI as core infrastructure.

Jeff McMillan is the founder of McMillanAI and former Head of Firmwide AI at Morgan Stanley. As one of the few technology leaders who has successfully scaled global AI systems across a Fortune 100 enterprise in a highly regulated environment — overseeing more than 100 successful use cases — he partners directly with Fortune 500 CEOs to scale AI ethically, responsibly, and profitably. McMillan bridges technical architecture with executive discipline, helping leadership teams overhaul broken operating models, establish enterprise governance, and turn human fluency into measurable business value.

Purna Virji is an AI commercialization strategist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker who helps leaders translate AI capabilities into measurable business impact. Drawing on more than a decade of leadership at Microsoft and LinkedIn, she guides organizations through go-to-market strategy, customer engagement, and AI adoption. Purna is the author of High-Impact Content Marketing, creator of Agent-Led Growth, and has been named Content Marketer of the Year and Search Personality of the Year.

Gina Martin is an Executive Coach, Leadership Advisor, and educator with over 20 years of corporate leadership experience at companies including Victoria's Secret, GUESS, and Gap, where she led teams of up to 600 people and managed businesses exceeding $100 million. An International Coaching Federation Master Certified Coach (MCC), Gina works with C-suite executives and senior leaders navigating high-stakes transitions, expanding their influence, and stepping into greater leadership responsibility. She holds a master's degree in Executive Coaching and Organizational Consulting from New York University and serves as a Professional Coaching Certificate Program Educator at the University of Miami. A 2024 Gold Stevie Award recipient for Mentor/Coach of the Year, Gina is also a TEDx speaker, Forbes Coaches Council contributor, and founder of Own Your Next, a nonprofit organization supporting women rebuilding their lives after breast cancer.