Sue Hesse is a world-class facilitator, trainer and consultant facilitator, trainer and consultant in leadership, entrepreneurship, and human dynamics. Having started her career in the hotel industry in sales and management, Sue moved on to corporate travel, where she was first exposed to the concepts that she will spend years mastering and sharing: leadership, teamwork, and strategic planning. After a decade of running her own Print Management company in St. Louis, Sue found her calling delivering thousands of retreats, training and forum programs in over 30 countries around the world. She is now a top-rated facilitator, as well as a master trainer.

Throughout her career, she has held various positions within the Young Entrepreneur's Organization, from Forum Chair to President. Other organizations she has been a leading member include the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO) advisory council and the International Board.

Julie is on the Board of Advisors of the United Nations Women for Peace and the Board Chair—and driving force—behind the World Future Society, the most influential international authority for the past 50 years in future thinking.

With a background in education, AI & technology, entertainment, science and child advocacy, Julie is working to realize the vision that utilizing a futurist mindset in education will change the world. She is passionate about emerging technology and accelerating its adoption to make complex technology tools accessible to all.

Julie is a regular keynote speaker and panelist for universities (discussing the future of education and jobs), TEDx, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, TechWeek, the International Manufacturing Trade Show, and the Chicago Innovation Awards. Since becoming Board Chair of the World Future Society, she has advised governments and world leaders across the globe.

Matt is the founder and CEO of Plenty, a company that combines technology and agriculture to develop indoor crops that taste great, consume less water, occupy less land and do not require pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

Prior to founding his indoor farming company, he made his mark in the telecommunications and cellular smart grid industries, where he succeeded in driving innovation and achieving large-scale results. Some of his roles in these industries include President and COO of Whalen & Company, Managing Operating Partner of 523 Capital, and VP of Deployment at SmartSynch. Matt is an Economics graduate from Northwestern University and has a Masters from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Stefan Weitz is currently the founder and managing director of Indefinite Horizon, an incubator specializing in launching new concepts and businesses worldwide since 2016. He is also a board member in various technology startups, from biometrics to virtualization companies. He spent most of his career at Microsoft during an 18-year spell building technologies that touched over one billion people around the world. At Microsoft, he held different positions leading teams in Windows, Security, and Business Strategy, in areas ranging from program management to marketing. He was notably one of the leaders lobbying for the deployment of free WiFi access across US cities.

An early learner, he has been coding since the tender age of 8, later becoming an expert in both hardware and software. He is also the author of the bestselling book, Search: How the Data Explosion Makes Us Smarter.

Steve Glenn is the CEO and founder of LivingHomes and Planet Prefab. Whilst LivingHomes designs and builds sustainable prefabricated homes since 2004, Planet Prefab was the first prefabricated home factory in the US when it was founded in 2016, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency. Before founding his two companies, Steve Glenn successfully managed a $220 million charity program in Mozambique as a full-time volunteer with the Clinton HIV/AIDS initiative. Previous to that, he spent 4 years as CEO of PeopleLink, a company he founded in 1997 to supply major companies such as MTV, Oracle or GE with ecommunity solutions. In 1994-97, he had brief stints as co-director of the Virtual Reality Studio for Walt Disney Imagineering and as a founding member of Idealab, a business incubator with a track record of raising over a billion dollars.

Glenn was named 2009 Business Environmentalist of the Year by the Los Angeles City Council/Faith2Green, Clean Tech CEO of the Year in 2008 by Clean Tech Week, and "Greatest Person of the Day", by the Huffington Post. His volunteer work is rich and diverse, having founded the Sustainable Business Council, the Hope Street Group, and the Kaia Parker Dance Fund.

Sarah Elizabeth Ippel has dedicated her life to using education to create the next generation of critical thinkers and mindful leaders. At 23, she founded the Academy for Global Citizenship (AGC) in 2008 in Chicago's Southwest side. Prior to AGC, and following studies in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in the UK, she traveled the world to over 95 different countries to explore different learning philosophies, creating international alliances in a process that shaped the creation of the AGC.

Since its founding, AGC has become recognized across the globe for its innovative approach to learning, and is currently developing the first net-positive energy prototype “school of the future” campus to serve as learning laboratory and teacher training institute. Sarah Elizabeth recently completed a yearlong Entrepreneur in Residence Fellowship with Emerson Collective where she collaborated on authoring AGC’s book titled “Reimagine Education: Designing a School to Change the World.” Sarah Elizabeth also served a five-year term as Vice President of Education on the governing board of the United Nations Association.

She’s been recognized as one of Monocle’s Top 20 International Pioneers in Education, Forbes Top Five Game Changers in Education” and the GOOD 100 list of “people pushing the world forward through doing.”  She was also named a Bluhm Helfand Social Innovation Fellow, was selected by the Council on Global Affairs as an Emerging Leader Fellow and was awarded as one of the top 100 U.S. social entrepreneurs.

Dr. Bishop is the Founder and Executive Director of Teach the Future, an organization whose mission is to encourage and support educators who want to include futures thinking in their classes and schools at all levels. In 2013, Dr. Bishop retired as an Associate Professor of Strategic Foresight and Director of the graduate program in Foresight at the University of Houston. 

He has published two books on Strategic Foresight: Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (2007) and Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (2012), both with co-author Andy Hines. 

Presidential Professor Hill has been recognized by Design Intelligence and also as the only architecture futurist presenting at over 16 World Future Society Conferences. He has given several national and international keynote speeches on the future and on creativity and received the "Creativity Champion" award by the American Creativity Association.

Presidential Professor Hill holds the Harold Adams Professorship in Interdisciplinary Studies at Texas A&M and is on the board of the Institute for Applied Creativity and is a Research Fellow for the Centers for Housing and Urban Design, Health Systems and Design and CRS Center. He holds a joint appointment with the Department of Humanities & Medicine at the Health Science Center and teaches short courses on the future of medical technology. He was also awarded the Piper Professor for Teaching Excellence from the State of Texas. The Piper Award is given to the top eight professors in the State of Texas.  

Anthony S. Padula, M.D., is a triple-board-certified physician in adult medicine, pediatrics and rheumatology, a healthcare advisor for digital health start-ups that are commissioned to disrupt care for chronic conditions, an industry recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in his field, and a former national champion athlete who combines his passions to tackle the health challenges that confront both the individual and the system. 

Dr. Padula believes disease not only attacks our body, but also warps our ‘health identity’ and that only by caring for the whole person can we truly restore wellness. This is the evolution of medicine and it is technology that will bring us to be more connected to our bodies and allow a new health dimension to be accessed.  

Dr. Padula extends his mission by serving as a board member for Pile of Puppies, a non-profit organization that brings joy to chronically and terminally ill children by surrounding them with a pile of puppies. PoP believes joy heals and is a reminder that there is always light, even in the darkness. 

Dr. Padula practices as a Rheumatologist at the Northern California Arthritis Center in Walnut Creek, CA. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in Biology from Brown University (Providence, RI), and received his medical doctor degree from Jefferson Medical College (Philadelphia, PA).  He completed a combined Medicine and Pediatric residency at Christiana Hospital and DuPont Hospital for Children, and his Rheumatology fellowship at University of California, San Francisco.

Alex has spent his career as a founding member across startup ventures in consumer tech, consumer goods, media and finance. Alex began his career managing wealth for high net worth families and covering hedge funds and institutions in equity sales at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown. Alex has served various positions in human rights as Treasurer and Board Member of the Red Ribbon Foundation, Mentor at UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlement Program), and a Volunteer at Community Health Africa a Poverty Solution. Alex earned a Major in Economics from St Lawrence University and a MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Babson College - Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business.