Rich Horwath is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today best selling author on strategy. As the CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, he leads executive teams through the strategy process and has helped more than 50,000 managers around the world develop their strategic thinking skills. As a former chief strategy officer and professor of strategy, he brings both real-world experience and practical expertise to help groups build their strategy skills. Rich's work has been profiled on CNBC, Investor's Business Daily, CBS, NBC and FOX TV.

Randy Pennington helps leaders deliver positive results in a world of accelerating uncertainty and change. His clients include many of world’s best-managed companies, associations, government agencies, and universities. Additionally, Randy serves as an adjunct instructor in the Cox Business Leadership Center at Southern Methodist University.

Randy is author of three books: Make Change Work, Results Rule!; and On My Honor, I Will . His ideas have been featured in leading media outlets including CNN, PBS, Fox News, ABC Radio Network, the BBC, Fast Company, and The New York Times. He is a contributor to CIO.com and the Huffington Post.

Candy Knowles, a veteran health system human resources executive, is senior vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer for the University of Maryland Medical Center and its parent organization, the 12-hospital University of Maryland Medical System. In this newly-created position, she has oversight of all human resources functions throughout the system and serves as part of the senior leadership team.

Before joining the University of Maryland Medical Center/System, Knowles was the chief human resources officer at Parkland Health and Hospital in Dallas. Prior to her role at Parkland, she served in senior human resources positions at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, IN, Phoebe Putney Health System in Georgia, and Battle Creek Health System in Michigan.

Candy is certified by the Society of Human Resources Management and is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.  

Valerie helps companies improve their bottom line by elevating employees from tactical thinkers to strategic leaders.

She served in senior leadership roles at RollsRoyce Aircraft before helping to found InterActiveCorp, parent company to Expedia, Home Shopping Network and TicketMaster. She then went to work for Oprah Winfrey, helping to found the Oxygen channel which was later sold to NBC Universal.

Valerie obtained her mechanical engineering degree from Kettering University and her MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Val’s book, Clash of the Generations: Managing the New Workplace Reality, helps leaders manage multiple generations in the office.

Matt Ferguson is the CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation. Ferguson took CareerBuilder to the No. 1 position in the online recruitment industry within five years. Under his direction, CareerBuilder continues to outpace competitors in traffic, revenue and technology innovation, and is quickly expanding its global footprint with a presence in more than 60 countries worldwide.