The Best of World
Business Forum Worldwide 2024

Former Director of the CIA and United States Army General

A highly decorated general and one of the most prominent combat commanders in American history, Gen. David H. Petraeus, USA (Ret.) has dedicated his life to public service, leading military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and then serving as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. His illustrious military career spanned over 37 years and included six command roles, five of which were during combat. General Petraeus is the only person in U.S. Army history to be the top graduate in both the U.S. Army’s challenging Ranger School and the year-long U.S. Army Command and General Staff College course.

Post-military, he steered the CIA, amplifying global counterterrorism efforts and expanding intelligence outreach, before transitioning to the private sector, where he currently holds positions as a Partner at KKR, chairman of the KKR Global Institute, and a Kissinger Fellow at Yale University.

With a remarkable career spanning more than 30 years, Anne Chow is a pioneering figure in the enterprise world. She was the first woman of color CEO in AT&T’s 140+ year history, overseeing AT&T Business, a global operating unit with a workforce of 35,000 and a value of $35 billion. She has been widely recognized as a role model for inclusive leadership, driving success at the intersection of people, culture, and technology.

Twice named to Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business, Chow is currently Lead Director on the Board of Directors of FranklinCovey and also serves on the Board of Directors of 3M. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor of Executive Education at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Stephen M. R. Covey is the bestselling author of The SPEED of Trust and Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Covey personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine.

Gary Hamel is one of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic business thinkers who has led transformational efforts in some of the world’s most notable companies helping to create billions of dollars in shareholder value. For over four decades, Hamel has served on the faculty of the London Business School and he is the director of the Management Lab. Hamel is an author of landmark books such as Competing for the Future, The Future of Management and Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them. The Wall Street Journal has ranked Hamel as the world’s most influential business thinker, and Fortune magazine has called him “the world’s leading expert on business strategy.”

Former SVP, Apple Retail and CEO at Burberry

Consistently recognized over the past decade as one of the world’s top global executives, Angela Ahrendts DBE is best known for her tenure as Senior Vice President at Apple Retail and for her nine years as CEO at Burberry. At Apple, Ahrendts was responsible for integrating Apple’s physical and digital businesses, creating a seamless customer journey for over a billion visitors a year and re-crafting roles for 70,000 employees globally. At Burberry she transformed the fortunes of the brand, tripling the business and quadrupling the share price with a focus on culture and values. Ahrendts is currently Chair of the Board of Save the Children and a member of the Board of Directors of Ralph Lauren Corp., Airbnb, WPP, and charity: water.

A renowned expert on organizational learning and leadership and the world’s #1 ranked management thinker, Amy Edmondson has been studying psychological safety and workplace behaviors for more than 20 years. The Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, Edmondson helps organizations identify barriers to success that are often hidden inside a workplace culture. Her work has helped major firms vastly improve performance by building an environment of psychological safety, transparency and collaborative teaming. She is the bestselling author of The Fearless Organization, and the recently published Right Kind of Wrong, which won the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2023.

Dr. Elizabeth Dunn is a distinguished professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and a leading expert on the study of how time, money, and technology shape human happiness. Her experimental research has not only been published in top-tier journals, including three articles in Science, but also widely featured in international media like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and CNN. She is also the co-author of the acclaimed book Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, which has been recognized by the Washington Post as essential reading for leaders.

Francis Ford Coppola is a highly renowned film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has won multiple prestigious awards, including five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d’Or, and a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA). Coppola’s most notable films, such as The Godfather trilogy – which transformed the gangster genre – and Apocalypse Now, have established him as one of the most significant filmmakers in American history. His latest film, Megalopolis, is due to be released in 2024. Apart from his filmmaking career, Coppola has expanded his horizons into the wine and hospitality industry, establishing the Francis Ford Coppola Presents brand, which offers various resorts, cafes, and wineries located in California, Guatemala, and Belize.

Innovator and former President of Tesla Motors

A visionary leader and serial entrepreneur, Jon McNeill teaches organizations how to exponentially scale businesses and drive disruptive innovation. As former President of Tesla, he oversaw a 10-fold increase in sales from $2 billion to $20 billion in just three years. In 2018, he became COO at ride-hailing app Lyft, where he helped prepare the company to go public, growing revenue from $800 million to $2 billion in the process.

Currently, McNeill is a Managing Director at DVx Ventures, a growth-stage venture platform, and serves on several boards of companies including General Motors, Lululemon and Stash Financial.

A visionary creative artistic producer with more than 25 years of experience, Welby Altidor is the Group Chief Creative Officer at NEON, global leader in creating and producing immersive experiences with partnerships such as The Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios. Altidor is the former Executive Creative Director of Creations at Cirque du Soleil, where he spearheaded the creation of well-known shows such as Luzia and Michael Jackson ONE. His artistic contributions and creative design have led to the sale of more than 80 million tickets for interactive shows, events, and immersive exhibitions on a global scale. Altidor is also the author of Creative Courage.

Tony Fadell is an active investor and entrepreneur with a 30+ year history of founding companies and designing products that profoundly improve people’s lives. He is the Principal at Build Collective, an investment and advisory firm coaching deep tech startups. Currently, Build Collective is coaching over 200+ startups innovating game-changing technologies. He is the founder and former CEO of Nest, the company that pioneered the “Internet of Things.” Fadell was the SVP of Apple’s iPod Division and led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone. Throughout his career Fadell has authored more than 300 patents. In May 2016, TIME named the Nest Learning Thermostat, the iPod and the iPhone as three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time.” He is a bestselling author of BUILD: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.

Professor of Management and Head of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Network Research Center at Warwick Business School, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf’s research is centered on understanding scientific and technological innovation in the digital age. Lifshitz-Assaf has received recognition for her work in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for critical decision-making, including the ISSIP Excellence in Service Innovation award in 2023. Before her academic career, she spent seven years as a strategy consultant, specializing in growth and innovation strategies in various industries.

Dr. Sharon Melnick is a corporate psychologist and global authority on personal power in leadership whose work is informed by 10 years of groundbreaking research at Harvard Medical School. She has worked with a range of organizations from Fortune 500 to fast-growth companies, as well as esteemed institutions such as the U.S. White House, United Nations, and West Point Military Academy. She is CEO of Horizon Point Inc, a global coaching and training company, and is the best-selling author of In Your Power: React Less, Regain Control, Raise Others.

David Rowan is a renowned figure in the tech and business world, helping leaders and organizations to adapt to the impact of emerging technologies. With a background as a technology columnist for various prestigious publications, he served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine’s UK edition from 2008 to 2017. Beyond journalism, Rowan has demonstrated a keen eye for investment opportunities, backing over 150 early-stage tech companies, including two billion-dollar unicorns. He has cultivated relationships with the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Xiaomi, Twitter, and numerous other ambitious startups.

A transformative leader with extensive experience in the design and delivery of leadership programs for executives, Richard Hall is a Professor, Senior Director of the Monash Global Leadership Development Program, and Deputy Dean at the Monash Business School. He has designed, managed and delivered MBA programs at a number of universities and has worked with major corporations and companies in the business, government, community and not-for-profit sectors. His research is mainly focused on leadership relations and development, management, organizational change and new technologies at work. Hall has also been a visiting Professor at Harvard University, Imperial College London and the University of Strathclyde.

With more than 25 years of entrepreneurial and senior management experience, Felipe Gómez has developed a powerful set of proven tools that helps leaders, teams and organizations to reach extraordinary performance. Leveraging his passion for music and with a grand piano on stage, Felipe will inspire his audience and provide tools to consistently aim for operational excellence, create meaningful connections and build effective cultures of innovation. Gómez is the author of the best-selling book, Attitude-E: The Method for Being Entrepreneurial and Fulfilling your Dreams.

As the Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy New York, and a marketing Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Marcus Collins bridges the academic-practitioner gap for blue-chip brands and startups alike. His acclaimed book For The Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be examines the influence of culture on consumption and unpacks how everyone from marketers to activists can leverage culture to get people to take action. He is a recipient of Advertising Age’s 40 Under 40 award, and a recent inductee into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement. In addition, he served as Head of Digital Strategy for Beyoncé.

A foremost authority on strategies for building and sustaining revenue, Marco Bertini is a Professor at Esade, former visiting Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to Globalpraxis. Renowned for his expertise in creating and sharing value with customers, he helps companies capitalize on innovation and competitive advantage to effectively generate revenue and build stronger brands. Bertini has collaborated with organizations such as IBM, AT&T, H&M, Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Fox Networks, Pfizer, Novartis, and Boston Consulting Group, where he held the position of Senior Advisor. Author of multiple articles on strategy, marketing, and customer relationships, he is also the co-author, alongside Oded Koenigsberg, of The Ends Game: How Smart Companies Stop Selling Products and Start Delivering Value.

Modupe Akinola is a leading authority on organizational performance and diversity, and the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. She advises leaders on managing stress, diversity, equity, inclusion initiatives and women’s leadership. Her research on stress and discrimination has been published in numerous academic journals and media outlets, including The New York Times, Forbes, and The Economist. Before becoming an academic, Akinola was a Consultant and the head of diversity at Bain & Co., where she contributed to the organization’s recruitment and retention framework for people of color. She earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Harvard.

One of the world’s foremost experts on the global economy, Nouriel Roubini is CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, LLC, a global macroeconomic consultancy firm in New York and Professor Emeritus at the Stern School of Business at NYU. He famously predicted the 2008 financial crisis two years before it happened at a 2006 address to the International Monetary Fund.‍ Dr. Roubini has extensive policy experience as well as broad academic credentials, consulting for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and numerous other prominent public and private institutions. A widely published author, Roubini’s most recent bestselling publication is Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them.

Leading expert in conflict resolution and workplace dynamics

Amy Gallo’s work is focused on teaching leaders evidence-based frameworks that improve relationships and drive excellence at work. She has emerged as a powerful new voice on topics of conflict resolution, communication and workplace dynamics. Contributing Editor at the Harvard Business Review and author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People), Gallo is an authority on managing conflict in remote settings, how teams can have “smart fights,” navigating power dynamics, gender at work and more. A graduate of both Brown and Yale University, Gallo taught at Brown and is also on the faculty of the Emotional Intelligence Coaching Certification program, recently launched by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence.

Award-winning psychologist and bestselling author of Chatter

An award-winning professor in the University of Michigan’s top-ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts in controlling the conscious mind. He studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions, and relationships.

Kross’ bestselling book, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It, was chosen as one of the best new books of the year by the Washington Post, and the Winning Winter 2021 selection for Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Dan Pink’s Next Big Idea Book Club. He has participated in policy discussions at the White House and is the founder of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory at the University of Michigan.

Chris Gardner is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and single parent whose work has been recognized by many esteemed organizations around the world. He is the author of two bestselling books, The Pursuit of Happyness and Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Gardner was an executive producer on the iconic and critically acclaimed film adaptation of The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. Through his positivity, courage, tenacity, discipline and common sense, Gardner’s story is one of overcoming setbacks and hardship to become a top earner on Wall Street before founding his own brokerage.

Expert in AI, Quantum Computing and Next-Gen Tech; CEO and Founder of Ribo AI and XLabs

Radhika Dirks is one of the world’s leading voices on the big questions and the practical considerations about generative AI. As CEO and cofounder of XLabs, her mission is to develop diverse applications of AI and unconventional computing that will radically change the current technological and social paradigm. Before creating XLabs, Dirks founded Seldn, an AI startup that predicts global socio-economic disruptions. At Ribo AI, her technology found potential cures for 11 cancers within its first 1.5 years. She has been named to Deloitte’s top women in the AI world, and has been featured everywhere from Fast Company to the BBC and many more.

Founder and President of Inspired Companies and former Vice President of Nike’s Access to Sport

Lisa MacCallum is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Inspired Companies and is focused on corporate reputation, purpose driven business performance, complex stakeholder leadership, communications and brand transformation. A former Vice President at Nike, MacCallum worked internationally for two decades, primarily in the USA and Japan. She held global leadership roles for Nike in Corporate Strategy, Apparel, Sales and Retail and also led Nike’s global Access to Sport and community impact work as Managing Director of the Nike Foundation.

MacCallum holds several non-executive director roles, including with British Telecom’s Sustainable Business Board Committee in the UK; Bond University, Australia and Adani Transmission, India. Furthermore, she is a Young Global Leader of the Economic Forum, Ambassador for the World Benchmarking Alliance and Commissioner for the Aspen Institute on Information and Democracy.