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.