Experts of Digital Knowledge Club 2020
Chester Elton
Helping Leaders Create High Performing "All In" Cultures Author, New York Times bestselling author, Executive Coach,
Chester Elton
Helping Leaders Create High Performing "All In" Cultures Author, New York Times bestselling author, Executive Coach,
How do today’s best leaders accelerate business results? By engaging their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. Chester Elton has spent two decades helping clients engage their employees in organizational strategy, vision and values. In his inspiring and always entertaining talks, Elton provides real solutions for leaders looking to build culture, manage change and drive innovation. His work is supported by research with more than a million working adults across the globe, revealing the proven secrets behind high performance cultures and teams.
Elton is co-founder of The Culture Works, a global training company, and author of multiple award winning, #1 New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, All In, The Carrot Principle and Leading with Gratitude. His books have been translated into 30 languages and have sold more than 1.5 million copies.
He has been called “fascinating” by Fortune and “creative and refreshing” by The New York Times. Elton has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS 60 Minutes, and is often quoted in Fast Company, Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal.
In 2020 Global Gurus research organization ranked Chester #4 among the world’s top leadership experts and #2 among the world’s top organizational culture experts. The Employee Engagement Awards 2020 named him a Top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencer; and Engagedly named him Top HR Influencer of 2020. He is a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s #MG100 Global Coaches, member of the Fast Company Impact Council, and serves as a board member for Camp Corral, a non-profit for the children of wounded and fallen military heroes.
Warren Knight
Top 100 Global Influencer and Top 100 Tech Influencer 2019 and Award-Winning Entrepreneur
Warren Knight
Top 100 Global Influencer and Top 100 Tech Influencer 2019 and Award-Winning Entrepreneur
Warren Knight is an award-winning keynote speaker a top 100 Global Influencer and top 100 Tech Influencer, he’s internationally recognised as a speaker, trainer and coach on Digital Leadership & Digital Transformation, with nearly 15 years digital experience he’s an award-winning technology entrepreneur, certified Agile leader and author of Think #Digital First.
Change agent Warren Knight’s personal approach to transforming how we view disruptive technology is to empower individuals with positive choices to reach business objectives and as a result builds stronger companies and more engaged communities.
His vision is to, by 2035, help 1,000,000 leaders globally build a workplace based on culture, community, and technology for generation Alpha.
Perry Timms
International CPD accredited & TEDx speaker on HR and the future of work
Perry Timms
International CPD accredited & TEDx speaker on HR and the future of work
Perry Timms is the founder and Chief Energy Officer of PTHR - an 8-person global consultancy, setting out to create better business for a better world. Perry is an international and 2x TEDx speaker and award-winning writer on the future of work, HR & learning
Perry’s 2017 book Transformational HR was an Amazon.com Top 30 HR seller shortly after its release (and is due for a second edition in 2021), but before that, his second book - The Energised Workplace - is published in August 2020.
Perry’s work is influenced by human-centred, design and systems thinking plus agile, inclusive and autonomous ways of working that enhance personal fulfilment and organisation effectiveness.
Perry is Adjunct Professor at Hult International Business School and Ashridge Management School; a visiting fellow at Cranfield School of Management, and Sheffield Hallam University, a is a Fellow of the RSA.
Perry is a proud Chartered member of the CIPD and is a 3x member of HR Magazine’s HR Most Influential Thinkers making the top 10 in 2018 & 2019.
David Burkus
Best-selling Author, Sought After Speaker, Professor
David Burkus
Best-selling Author, Sought After Speaker, Professor
Burkus’ award-winning books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and his TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times.
A renowned expert, Burkus’ writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USA Today, Fast Company, and more. He has been interviewed by NPR, the BBC, CNN, and CBS This Morning. Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50.
Associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University where he was recently named one of the nation’s “Top 40 Under 40 Professors Who Inspire.”
Corey Phelps
Dean of the Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma
Corey Phelps
Dean of the Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma
Corey Phelps is an accomplished keynote speaker, corporate trainer and an award-winning business school professor. He is currently Dean of the Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma. Formerly an Associate Dean of Executive Education and Professor of Strategy at McGill University, he completed his Ph.D. at the Stern School of Business, New York University.
His book – Cracked It! How to Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants (co-authored with Bernard Garrette and Olivier Sibony) – was published in summer 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan.
Drawing on his extensive research experience, Corey has delivered keynote presentations and executive training programs for over 50 organizations in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. In recognition of his teaching excellence, he received the Pierre Vernimmen BNP Paribas Award at HEC Paris and undergraduate and MBA professor of the year awards at the University of Washington.
Corey’s research, which has appeared in top academic journals and received over 5500 citations, examines how alliances, acquisitions, and corporate venture capital influence growth and innovation. He received the Academy of Management Technology & Innovation Management Division’s Best Dissertation Award, The State Farm Companies Foundation Dissertation Award, and the INFORMS Technology Management Best Paper Award. Corey is the Chair of the AOM TIM division and serve on the editorial boards of four top journals.
Betsy Myers
Former senior advisor to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, Leadership Authority, Author
Betsy Myers
Former senior advisor to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, Leadership Authority, Author
Betsy Myers is currently the Founding Director of the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University. A leadership expert, author, and advocate, she is also speaking at conferences and workshops around the world on the changing nature of leadership. Her book, Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You, continues to be the basis of her work as her experience spans the corporate, political and high education arena.
As Executive Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, she focused the center’s teaching and research around personal leadership. A senior adviser to two U.S. Presidents, she was most recently the Chief Operating Officer of the Obama Presidential Campaign and Chair of Women for Obama.
During the Clinton Administration, Betsy spent several years at the U.S. Small Business Administration in posts that included Director of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership. She then moved to the White House as President Clinton’s senior adviser on women’s issues and Director of the Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach.
Sally Foley-Lewis
Productivity and Leadership Expert, Author
Sally Foley-Lewis
Productivity and Leadership Expert, Author
Sally helps managers be productive high performers. Obsessed with boosting productive- and self-leadership that managers and management teams reach their potential. Sally positively impacts results, confidence and effectiveness.
- Awarded the 2020 Breakthrough Speaker of the Year by Professional Speakers Australia
- 2019 finalist: Australian Learning Professional of the Year
- 2019 Bronze Stevie International Business Award
- 2019 Winner: Champion Sole Trader in the 2019 Australian Small Business Champion Awards
- 2018: 25 LinkedIn Top Voices for Australia for 2018
She has authored multiple books: her book The Productive Leader received an endorsement from the renowned global personal development guru Brian Tracy.
“This is a fast-moving, practical book that show you how to increase your performance, result and rewards immediately. Every step or idea is proven and easy to apply!”
Blending 20+ years of working with a diverse range of people and industries, in Germany, the Middle East, and across Australia Sally has extensive qualifications, a wicked sense of humour and an ability to make people feel at ease. Sally’s your first choice for mastering skills, inspiring action and achieving results.
Dr Ian C. Woodward
Professor of Management Practice at INSEAD—the business school for the world
Dr Ian C. Woodward
Professor of Management Practice at INSEAD—the business school for the world
Professor Ian C. Woodward specializes in Leadership and Communication. He lectures in a range of INSEAD programmes and is Director of the Advanced Management Programme as well as Leadership Communication with Impact. He was Co-Program Director for the INSEAD Master of Finance degree. He also lectures and consults in leadership and management practice for high performance, as well as leadership and strategic development in organizations as diverse as financial and professional services, utilities, energy and the public sector. He was guest faculty at leading international business schools including Associate Faculty Director for Columbia Business School’s Senior Executive Program.
He is the lead author of the book, “The Phoenix Encounter Method: Lead Like Your Business is on Fire!” to be released in October 2020. He was also lead author of the book “Exploring Leadership Drivers and Blockers” (Palgrave Macmillan 2019)
Ian brings a unique combination of global business, government, communication and arts experience to executive education. His business career includes Board Directorships, Chief Executive, Senior Executive and Executive Consulting roles in financial and energy sector organisations including: The Australian Gas Light Company; Natural Gas Corporation of New Zealand; the Australian Gas Association; Macquarie Bank; and Asian Development Bank. In government, he was the first Australian to serve on the staff of a US Cabinet Secretary (Minister) as well as being Chief of Staff to an Australian State Premier and Minister. From 2005 to 2010 he was a Commissioner of the Australian Energy Market Commission and the inaugural Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Partnership Energy Regulatory and Market Development Forum. He is currently a Board member of The Gas Company of Hawaii. He is also the Associate Conductor of Singapore’s Metropolitan Festival Orchestra.
Developing exceptional communication proficiency in leaders is a particular passion. Ian developed the concept of “communication intelligence” in leadership communication. He designed the Communication Preference Styles Survey (CPSS) as a development tool to assist leaders to become more aware and effective communicators.
Christian Rangen
Founder & CEO of Engage // Innovate and Strategy Tools
Christian Rangen
Founder & CEO of Engage // Innovate and Strategy Tools
Christian “Chris” Rangen is a strategy & transformation advisor to companies, innovation clusters and governments around the world. His clients span oil & gas, energy, technology, telecom, aviation, mobility, finance, consulting and national governments. He has worked extensively with seafood across the value chain.
His field of expertise span strategy, corporate transformation, entrepreneurship, venture capital and accelerating transformation. He has developed significant methodologies and frameworks within these fields.
Christian Rangen is founder/CEO of Engage // Innovate – a global strategy & innovation consulting company and Strategy Tools – the modern strategist’s platform.
He is also faculty at five business schools, teaching strategy, entrepreneurship, energy transformation and more.
His recent publications include the Shifting Energy Arena (2018), Building Switzerland’s Innovation Superclusters (2018) and Building Innovation Superclusters (English and Mandarin, 2019), Building the Transformational Company (2020).
Dan Cockerell
Disney Keynote Speaker, Author, 26-Year Veteran Vice President of Disney Magic Kingdom
Dan Cockerell
Disney Keynote Speaker, Author, 26-Year Veteran Vice President of Disney Magic Kingdom
Dan is the former Vice-President of the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida.
He attended Boston University, graduating in 1991, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.
Upon graduation from Boston University in 1991, Dan moved to Florida and worked as a parking attendant at Disney’s Epcot Center. Subsequently, he joined the Disneyland Paris Management Trainee Program as part of the opening team and moved to France in 1992.
While working in Paris, Dan held various management positions in Parking, Ticketing, Guest Relations, Food & Beverages and Human Resources.
After spending 5 years in France, Dan relocated to Florida and held a variety of executive roles at the Walt Disney World Resort, both in the theme parks and resort hotels. His last 9 years with the company, he was successively Vice President of Epcot, Vice president of Disney’s Hollywood Studios and eventually Vice President of the Magic Kingdom where he led 12,000 cast members and entertained over 20 million guests annually.
He earned his MBA in 2001 at the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College.
In addition to his operational responsibilities, Dan was a keynote speaker for the world-renowned Disney Institute for 18 years. He has addressed open-enrollment participants from all over the world as well as attendees in custom programs including the USAA Bank, General Motors, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, the Southern Methodist University Business School, Porsche A.G., and United Airlines.
He served on the board of Junior Achievement of Central Florida from 2004 to 2018, and was Chairman in 2010.
After a fulfilling and exciting 26-year career with the Walt Disney Company, Dan and his wife Valerie made the decision to set out on a new venture and start their own consulting and speaking business.
Dan provides customized, authentic presentations, insightful workshops and one on one coaching, focusing on leadership and management practices drawing upon his extensive Disney career with relevant examples and inspiring storytelling.
Paul Smith
Author of three Amazon #1 bestsellers, Business storytelling coach
Paul Smith
Author of three Amazon #1 bestsellers, Business storytelling coach
Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on organizational storytelling. He’s one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers of 2018, a storytelling coach, and author of three Amazon #1 bestsellers: Lead with a Story (now in its 11th printing, and published in 7 languages around the world), Sell with a Story, and The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell, and his newest book Four Days with Kenny Tedford. He’s a former executive at The Procter & Gamble Company and a consultant with Accenture prior to that.
Claire Boscq-Scott
Mystery Shopping & Customer Service Global Guru, Speaker, Consultant, Trainer
Claire Boscq-Scott
Mystery Shopping & Customer Service Global Guru, Speaker, Consultant, Trainer
Mystery shopping and Customer Service specialist, Claire lives to inspire global businesses to thrive by delivering exceptional customer experiences in measuring and improving employees' performances.
No 5 Top 30 Global Customer Service Guru, UK Top 10 CX Influencer and CX Thought Leader 2020, with three decades of expertise in Mystery shopping and Customer Service, Claire, AKA the Busy Queen Bee, is an authority the Customer Experience Industry. She brings a more holistic and comprehensive approach to Employee and Customer eXperience.
She is a Keynote Speaker, Consultant & trainer specialising in retail & hospitality. Author of 3 books; Thrive with the Hive, Thriving by Caring, and launching in September 2020; The Secret Diary of a Mystery Shopper
Her online L&D platform BQB CX Institute offers a wide range of online and onsite training and has developed her Caring Service Culture Leadership Programme a game-changer for any organisations who want to become truly customer centric.
James van der Westhuizen
very experienced virtual learning facilitator and decision-making expert
Andy Hanselman
Business improvement expert, Author and consultant
Andy Hanselman
Business improvement expert, Author and consultant
Andy Hanselman helps businesses and their employees create competitive advantages by ‘Thinking in 3D’. That means being ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ and doing things their competitors aren’t doing, or even better, can’t do! Being able to help advise and provide useful techniques to businesses, Andy Hanselman methods help to make them stand out from the crowd in today’s evermore crowded markets.
Andy has over 28 years experience researching, working with, learning from and speaking about successful winning businesses, their leaders and their people.
This has helped him identify 7 common characteristics in these successful 3D Businesses that help them get ahead, and stay ahead of their competitors.
Think in 3D! The 7 Characteristics of Dramatically and Demonstrably Different Businesses is his latest book and in it he shares what these 3D Businesses have and do.
Andy brings these things to life in his presentations. From high impact keynotes that can ‘wow’ an audience, to longer in-depth interactive masterclass sessions that provide specific solutions, he offers a refreshing, relevant and challenging approach in today’s ever changing, fast moving world.
He has worked with and provided advice to a wide variety of leading organisations from a number of different industries, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Santander, Specsavers, ASDA, TEDx,
NHS, University of Hull and Irwin Mitchell.
Andy is recognized for his engaging, humorous, and down to earth approach. His stimulating, motivational and practical style offers real solutions to today’s business problems.
James Pearce
BBC broadcaster, UK’s leading communications trainers, The art of handling difficult questions
James Pearce
BBC broadcaster, UK’s leading communications trainers, The art of handling difficult questions
James Pearce has been a BBC sports correspondent and television presenter for more than 25 years. He was the BBC’s Olympics Correspondent for London 2012. Aged just 23 he became the youngest ever regular reporter for BBC One’s flagship Six o’ Clock News and since then he hardly paused for breath.
He led BBC News’ coverage of London 2012 from the start of the bid in 2001 through to the announcement of the winning city in Singapore in 2005 and then on to those memorable Games in 2012. He has reported from ten Olympic Games (5 Summer and 5 Winter), and 4 Football World Cups.
After the 2012 Olympics James left his staff job at the BBC to go freelance and set up his own company. He still works for the BBC, presenting sports bulletins on the BBC News Channel, but much of his time is now devoted to his communications training agency. James is passionate about improving the skills of those appearing in media interviews. His highest profile clients are all the England football teams and the British Olympic and Paralympic teams, but he also works with a number of FTSE 100 executives and staff at NHS England. James delivers a very interactive and engaging conference talk, which outlines some of the key skills that we can all learn to improve our everyday communications in and out of the workplace. As he emphasises, we are all salespeople at times, and we can all learn techniques to improve the way that we communicate. Listen to James’ talk, and you will get the inside track on the teaching given to Harry Kane and his fellow England players.
James is also an extremely experienced event host and moderator. He has hosted events all over the world. He is the annual host of SportAccord, which is the world’s biggest and highest profile sports conference. The 2018 edition was in Bangkok and in 2019 it took place in the Gold Coast, Australia. James hosts numerous awards evenings and conferences, and is an expert at keeping an audience engaged while making sure that the event is running on time.
Mark Shekter
Co-founder Think8 Global Institute, Author, Venture Strategis
Mark Shekter
Co-founder Think8 Global Institute, Author, Venture Strategis
Mark Shekter is recognized as a powerfully original thinker in helping individuals and organizations around the world create meaningful and effective change in the fields of Business, Education, Retail, Technology, Media, Finance, Global Affairs and the Arts.
As Co-founder and CEO of the Think8 Global Institute headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Mark has pioneered an entirely “new think” to ignite collective creativity and focus it towards real and sustainable social, economic and environmental solutions. He has provided his expertise globally to governments, major companies, multi-nationals and not-for-profits generating billions in increased revenue. His innovative methodology has been adopted by university Master’s Programs in Management Technology and Entrepreneurship, with thousand around the world trained in this new methodology.
With Mark’s background as an internationally acclaimed Hollywood writer-producer, having written for Jim Carrey and Steve Martin, and musical material for Elton John, Ray Charles and others, he brings his unique perspective on the current culture of relentless innovation and market disruption, offering a proven way to boost individual and corporate creativity capacity to be profitable and sustainable.
Nishant Kasibhatla
Global Professional Speaker | Guinness Record Holder
Nishant Kasibhatla
Global Professional Speaker | Guinness Record Holder
Nishant Kasibhatla is a Peak Mental Performance Expert and an author of 6 books. He is a Guinness World Record Holder (2011), a Grand Master of Memory & a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). He helps executives, managers and leaders to cultivate a High Performance Mindset and boost their focus and productivity.
Singtel, American Express and Petronas are just a few companies that have relied on Nishant's unconventional approach to delivering presentations that are mesmerising, memorable and message-driven.
In the last 23 years, in his speeches and workshops, Nishant has empowered thousands of people in 23 countries across 5 continents, helping them challenge their limiting beliefs and achieve greater heights of effectiveness.
For more than two decades, Nishant's presentations have always fulfilled conference/training objectives for companies like Coca Cola, Singapore Police Force, Ascendas, Changi Airport Group and Glaxo Smith Kline to name a few.
Millions of television viewers have experienced Nishant Kasibhatla on the Discovery Channel, South China Morning Post, Channel News Asia, VTV, Zee TV and Vasantham TV networks.
George Muir
Founder and CEO of Udal Cuain AB
George Muir
Founder and CEO of Udal Cuain AB
George is a renowned Futurist, responsible for igniting ideas, discussion on the practical applications of the digital revolution of business and how artificial intelligence will impact our professional lives in the future.
George spent over 25 years in various roles at IKEA, with a long career in technology development across IKEA, which included the digitization of IKEA in Sweden and the establishment of Enterprise Architecture.
He also worked in the business development areas around Digital Workplace, Human Resources and Business Processes. George helped establish both the Digital Workplace Group and Make IKEA a Great Workplace as process developer of the ‘Visualize the Future Workplace’ process..
Gareth Bullen
Director of Commercial Operations UK at Diagmed Healthcare Ltd
Gareth Bullen
Director of Commercial Operations UK at Diagmed Healthcare Ltd
Gareth has over 20 years’ experience as a Senior Manager and Director within Utilities before moving to help set up a consultancy which built an unrivalled reputation in delivering leadership capacity, customer excellence and creative ways of working. Gareth has helped to develop senior leaders across all sectors and has worked with a wide range of clients. He is also an executive coach and mentor, working with board level directors in many private and public organisations. Including those in the NHS, Government Office, O2, The Big Lottery and Npower.
Over the years Gareth has been successful in winning numerous national awards with clients for customer excellence, learning and development and employee engagement reflecting the level of commitment, passion and expertise he brings to all his work.
Gareth is viewed as a thought leader in the area of the intrapreneurial leader mind-set and now works globally with organisations regularly giving keynote speeches on how businesses can become more intrapreneurial.
Gareth is a Fellow of the Global Intrapreneur Institute and a Board Member of Alchemist Consultants who are global experts in industry 4.0 and Intrapreneurship.
Gareth has contributed to a number of academic books and writes online articles for Future Shapers. Gareth’s book – The Naked Intrapreneur – will be published by the end of 2020.