The Fall 2026 SSB Collective
Each year, Speaker Story Bank curates voices and ideas that are shaping the conversations that organizations need to be having — sometimes quietly within small teams, and sometimes boldly across entire enterprises.
Our 2026 Fall Collective will hold the keys to the future of work, each in their own, thoughtful way through our Impossible To Ignore Ideas campaign.
At a time when the workplace seems to be in a constant state of flux, we keep layering new expectations onto old ways of working, and then wondering why the results fall short. We want managers to lead with more empathy. Employees to be more engaged. Organizations to innovate faster. And everyone to embrace AI. But many of the systems, relationships and assumptions underlying work were built for a very different moment and that brings many new expectations.
The Fall Collective explores The Possibility of What Comes Next and each speaker will address a common theme: How can we prepare leaders to question what exists and build what’s needed for the future of their organization?
Here’s a closer look at our four Featured Voices.
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Kathleen Quinn Votaw
The Architecture of Work
How can we design better organizational infrastructure and employee experiences?
In a workplace being reshaped by AI, where employees expect more from work than ever before, Kathleen Quinn Votaw helps organizations build the human infrastructure that technology alone can never replace.
Kathleen challenges a common blind spot: that companies invest millions in product design and customer experience while leaving organizational design to chance. Instead, she shows leaders how to build trust at every level, resolve friction before it drives people away, and create the conditions employees need to be supported, developed, and set up to succeed. Her work helps organizations move away from reactive people-management and toward an intentional Infrastructure of CARE for the Employee Experience.
An Organizational Design Expert and 2x Inc 5000 CEO, Kathleen draws on more than 30 years of experience building and leading high-performing teams, including as founder and CEO of TalenTrust, a recruitment and talent advisory firm. Her Designed to Care™ framework has become a go-to resource for leaders who want to close the gap between what they intend for their employees and what those employees actually experience — turning talented people into engaged, long-term contributors instead of costly departures.
Phil Putnam
The Relationships at Work
How can we build more honest employment relationships by getting clearer about what people want work to make possible — and what organizations need in return?
In workplaces where employees are asked to give more without anyone understanding what would make them want to, Phil Putnam helps organizations replace assumptions with honest conversation about what work is really for.
Phil challenges a deeply ingrained belief: that motivation, performance and retention can be driven by demands alone. Instead, he shows leaders how to uncover what each person actually wants from the exchange of work, align expectations on both sides, and build relationships that treat employees as beings of desire rather than units of productivity. His work helps organizations move away from second-place motivations and toward the real engine of engagement — clarity about what people are giving, what they're getting, and why it's worth it.
A bestselling author and sought-after speaker, Phil draws on more than 20 years of experience as an employee, manager and executive inside performance-driven organizations including Apple and Adobe. His philosophy, Give to Get, and his book, Desire-Based Leadership, have become go-to resources for leaders who want to discover each person's answer to a simple but powerful question — Why Work? — and use it to unlock top performance, wiser hiring decisions and lower costs.
Dr. Heather Collins
The Neuroscience of Work
How can a new understanding of the brain help people think and perform better through constant change?
At a time when organizations are racing to build AI capability while the human brain struggles with distraction, overload, and speed, Dr. Heather Collins helps leaders and teams understand the brain function behind every strategy, innovation, and interaction.
Heather challenges a deeply ingrained belief: that faster access to answers and more AI adoption automatically create better thinking. Instead, she shows leaders how to build cognitive capacity, strengthen focus and critical thinking, and use AI to deepen human thinking rather than quietly replace it. Her work helps organizations move away from simply adopting AI and toward true AI leverage — Brain Gain, not Brain Drain.
A cognitive neuroscientist with more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, Heather draws on rigorous research spanning cognition, memory, and human performance. Her keynotes, featuring live experiments and unexpected demonstrations, have become powerful experiences for leaders who want to make the invisible processes of attention, memory, perception and judgment visible, usable, and ultimately, a source of better performance.
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Leo Chan
The Possibility of What Comes Next
How can we use creativity and curiosity to question what exists and build what’s next?
At a time when organizations can't afford to leave innovation to a select few, Leo Chan helps make innovation real and accessible for everyone.
Leo challenges a deeply ingrained belief: that innovation belongs only to people with "innovation" in their titles. Instead, he shows leaders how to build curiosity, creativity and confidence throughout their organizations, using play as a lever to loosen assumptions and help people move from "I'm not an innovator" to "I know how to contribute something new." His work helps organizations move away from innovation as a specialized function and toward innovation as a capacity everyone can develop.
A former chief innovation lead at State Farm and Chick-fil-A, Leo draws on his experience building innovation curricula and coaching experiences inside dynamic, real-world organizations. He holds 80 patents, and his LinkedIn Learning programs have reached more than 165,000 viewers globally — equipping people with the mindsets and skill sets to notice what others miss, connect ideas in new ways, and experiment with what could be better.
The Spring 2026 SSB Collective
David Gomez
Reclaiming Value with Courage and Confidence
Helping leaders and sales teams stop underselling themselves and start defending their value in markets that reward courage over concession.
In markets that reward sameness and pressure leaders to compete on price, David Gomez helps organizations lead with conviction instead of concession.
David challenges a deeply ingrained belief: that competitiveness requires being cheaper. Instead, he shows leaders how to defend their value with clarity, align teams around differentiation, and make courageous strategic choices that drive profitable growth. His work helps organizations move away from reactive pricing and toward confident positioning that customers can clearly understand — and choose.
A renowned international keynote speaker and bestselling author, David draws on decades of experience in corporate sales and marketing, including extensive work in Latin America’s fiercely price-driven markets. His books, including Stop Competing on Price (originally Bueno, Bonito y Carito) and It’s the Small Things, have become global references for leaders who want to stand out by delivering meaningful, memorable value — not discounts.
For leaders and sales organizations ready to defend their value, not discount it.
Sir Conor Burns
Leadership with Courage & Conviction Under Pressure
Insights from the rooms where decisions shape leaders, nations, and futures — and what it truly means to stand for something under pressure.
Leadership today isn’t tested in moments of agreement — it’s tested in conflict, complexity, and pressure.
Sir Conor Burns has led in rooms where decisions mattered, disagreements were real, and outcomes carried global consequences. As a former UK Minister of State for Trade Policy and Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for North America, he negotiated across governments, industries, and cultures — requiring clarity, conviction, and the ability to move forward without consensus.
What makes his perspective distinct, is his focus on Leadership with Courage and Conviction — anchored in principles, not popularity. Drawing on his trade experience and his close work with Margaret Thatcher, as Chairman of The Margaret Thatcher Centre, he explores how values-based leadership drives progress in divided, high-stakes environments.
Today, he advises business leaders navigating uncertainty, expansion, and polarized decision-making — and helps audiences understand how to lead decisively when the pressure is on.
For leaders who don’t have the luxury of easy agreement.
Renée Marino
The Courage to Communicate with Presence, Authenticity, and Impact
Bringing conviction into the room, and the moment — through grounded, human communication that truly connects.
In distracted, fast-moving systems, Communicating with Courage and Presence has become a leadership act.
Renée Marino helps leaders and teams slow the moment down — in order to connect with greater presence, intention, and impact. Drawing on over 30 years as a performer on the world’s largest stages, Renée brings a uniquely human lens to communication, where authenticity in an environment has usually been replaced by speed over substance.
Through her book, Becoming a Master Communicator, Renée offers a modern blueprint for blending digital fluency with real human connection — helping individuals and teams by teaching practical tools that help them show up more clearly, listen more fully, and be truly heard.
Renée’s approach has been embraced across corporate, creative, and personal development worlds, earning her recognition from Yahoo Finance as one of the “Top 10 Communication Coaches to Follow,” and placing her alongside leading voices in business, entertainment, and personal growth, including her role as the recent Emcee for Tony Robbins' Virtual RISE Summit.
For leaders ready to replace autopilot communication with presence and impact.
Brian Tierney
Courageous Storytelling in Times of Uncertainty
How the stories leaders choose — and avoid — determine what’s possible in moments of disruption, uncertainty, and change.
In moments of disruption, the stories leaders tell determine what happens next.
Brian Tierney helps organizations lead with Courageous Storytelling — not as performance, but as a leadership discipline. His work centers on helping leaders name reality honestly, replace fear-based narratives with possibility-driven ones, and guide teams forward with clarity and conviction when certainty is in short supply.
Brian is trusted in moments when reputations, futures, and institutions are on the line because he has lived inside those moments himself. From building and selling multiple companies, to leading the turnaround of one of America’s most iconic newspapers, to advising CEOs and boards under real pressure, Brian understands that story is not cosmetic. It is consequential.
Often at his best in moderated conversation, Brian brings reflection, perspective, and lived experience to leaders navigating change — helping them understand not just what story to tell the world, but what story they must first believe themselves in order to move forward together.
For leaders navigating disruption who understand that story is strategy, not spin.
The Fall 2025 SSB Collective
Rachel Druckenmiller
Too many smart and capable people are burned out, checked out, and holding back. They’re silencing themselves instead of showing up fully, and it’s costing them and their companies. Recognized by Smart Meetings as a Best of the Stage Speaker, Rachel helps organizations and leaders amplify the voice, value, and vitality of their people—fueling higher performance, deeper engagement, and lasting impact. Her thought provoking approach gets results as she empowers people to reconnect to their voice, activate clarity and agency, and take meaningful action—so they lead with confidence, speak up with courage, and contribute with purpose.
Recognized by Smart Meetings as a Best of the Stage Speaker, Forbes as a Next1000 Honoree, and Workforce Magazine as a 40 Under 40 Game Changer. For 13 years, led national wellbeing and employee engagement initiatives in the corporate world and today helps organizations and leaders amplify the voice, value, and vitality of their people—fueling higher performance, deeper engagement, and lasting impact.
Ian Beacraft
As founder and Chief Futurist of Signal and Cipher, Ian leads a strategic foresight and development agency guiding companies through the rapidly changing technology landscape to find meaningful routes to innovation that impact the bottom line, inspire cultural change, and create new products and services. As a Gonzo Futurist, he is actively experimenting with new and emerging technologies before they leave the research lab to understand the implications and applications for the future of work and society at large. Previously responsible for P&L’s and innovation departments at the largest agencies in the world, Ian is known for making bleeding-edge technology understandable and monetizable. Brands he has advised include Samsung, Intel, Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Universal Pictures, and dozens more.
Considered one of the top voices in AI and the future of work, Ian is a trusted advisor to the world’s most innovative companies by decoding the future of work with the tech of tomorrow.
Jeanne Sparrow
With the advent of AI and social media, people have begun to lose their sense of themselves. It's time for what Jeanne calls "The Power of Authenticity" where individuals and leaders become empowered to move with greater intentionality, speak with more presence, and lead in ways that create real connection—and lasting results. The real challenge is doing it on purpose and without fear, especially in high-pressure environments where expectations are high, communication is complex, and connection feels just out of reach.
Three decades of award-winning work in the media with a reach of more than 500 million people, combined with her wealth of experience as a respected speaker, trusted leadership and communication consultant, have led to a renewed focus on being more aligned with what truly matters.
Mike Robbins
Organizations face fast paced change and challenges every day. In order to create a winning team culture, he teaches how to navigate change by sharing practical techniques that allow for deeper trust, better collaboration, and greater results. Drawing on decades of experience in high-performance environments—from pro baseball to Silicon Valley-Mike believes that mindset, communication, and connection skills are what drive resilience, psychological safety, and lasting success.
Expert in teamwork, leadership, and emotional intelligence and author of 5 books. Empowers people, leaders, and teams to engage in their work and perform at their best while realizing that "we are all in this together."
The Spring 2025 SSB Collective
Liz Bohannon
The most innovative and resilient organizations of today share one thing in common: a culture fueled by curiosity, connection, and community. Liz has spent her career building award-winning, mission-driven brands and transforming workplace cultures. Utilizing her Community Quotient™ framework, she inspires teams to break free from limiting mindsets and build thriving, connected communities. Her approach isn't theoretical—it's backed by over a decade of building global, community-driven organizations that consistently outperform through the power of human connection.
Top 1% VC-Backed Female Founder, Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur
Faisal Hoque
Recognized as one of the world’s leading management thinkers and technologists. Faisal's work is characterized by a unique blend of technology expertise and management science, which he applies to foster sustainable and transformational change. Integrating Eastern philosophy with American entrepreneurial spirit, he emphasizes connectivity, mindfulness, and the collective good throughout his body of work.
Founder @ Shadoka, NextChapter,#1 WSJ Bestselling Author, Transformation and innovation partner for CACI, an $8 billion dollar company focused on U.S. national security. Contributor at MIT's IDEAS Social Innovation program, Thinkers50, and the Swiss business school IMD.
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Dr. Karen Macneill
Dr. Macneill bridges the elite worlds of Olympic athletics and Fortune 500 leadership, offering unparalleled insights into sustaining peak performance. With over two decades of experience as both an Olympic athlete and mental performance consultant, she equips leaders and teams with the psychological tools to thrive under pressure in both professional and personal arenas. She is an expert at teaching us all how to cultivate the 'freedom to perform' - a state where mental fitness and resilience drive high levels of excellence even in turbulent times.
Performance psychologist, mental performance consultant, professional speaker
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Charles Vogl
The most successful organizations of our era share one critical advantage: the ability to forge genuine human connections that spark innovation and drive extraordinary results. Drawing from personal experiences, extensive research, and three thousand years of spiritual traditions, Charles introduces powerful concepts that can revolutionize how we build communities and foster genuine connections, both online and offline. He combines ancient wisdom with contemporary strategies to enhance organizational culture and personal connections in our modern era.
Trusted thought leaders for Google School for Leaders, International bestselling author, founding member of Google Vitality Lab, Yale M. Div. graduate and guest lecturer.
Terence Mauri
An influential and outspoken thinker, engaging organizations to get "Future-Fit," Terence is one of the world's most requested headliner keynote speakers who inspires leaders to unlock the Upside of Disruption. He has a track record of battle-tested ideas to turn disruption into a tailwind for laser-like focus, strategic courage, and value creation.
Founder, HackFuture Lab, Best Selling Author, Entrepreneur Mentor at MIT, Global Insights Panel Advisor
The 2024 SSB Collective
Michael Gorton
Michael's mission is to revolutionize corporate cultures by inspiring personal agency in all team members that is reflective of how he has built unicorn businesses for over four decades. Best known for igniting corporate innovation through the power of entrepreneurial disruption.
Pioneer of the Half-Trillion-Dollar Telemedicine Industry, Founder of Teladoc/Serial Entrepreneur, Innovation and, Disruption Speaker, Bestselling Author
ABIGAIL POSNER
Shares thought provoking insights on culture, technology and leadership to audiences of thousands and proves that her own expansive approach to life has infused her work with a creative and innovative edge.
Director, Creative Works at Google; Agent of Change on Culture, Creativity, Innovation & Disruption; Podcast Host, HUMAN CODE
Jenn Lim
Step into a new era of workplace transformation with Jenn (Co-founder and CEO of Delivering Happiness; Founder of BEYOND HAPPINESS). A global workplace visionary and bestselling author, she brings her unparalleled expertise shaped by her pivotal leadership role in the early years of Zappos' world-renowned culture, igniting conversations that redefine organizational success.
CEO, Founder & Bestselling Author, World’s Top 50 Keynote Speakers, Global Workplace Visionary (or Iconic Pioneer of Workplace Culture)
The 2023 SSB Collective
We loved working with our roster of speakers from 2023, who have seen success in building their businesses and also some who have signed exclusively with great speaker bureau partners and managers.
Follow them on LinkedIn and reach out to them via their websites if you want to learn more about how they can create impact at your next event!
BEN WHITING
Creating Limitless Cultures, because no matter the problem, your people are the solution, and Ben guides you to understanding the tools that you can easily give to your people in order to see them shine and rise to any challenge.
Fortune 50 Keynote Speaker & Business Consultant; Transformative Corporate Culture Expert; Award-Winning Entertainer
ELIZABETH LOMBARDO
Taming Stress & Negative thoughts with strategies to create better relationships, more productivity and overall success.
Acclaimed Clinical Psychologist; Transformative Keynote Speaker on Positive Psychology; Author, Get Out of The Red Zone: Transform Your Stress and Optimize True Success
