DeMaurice Smith spent fifteen years negotiating against the most powerful owners in sports and walked away having delivered more than $100 billion to players.

As Executive Director of the NFL Players Association, he took on what ESPN called the toughest job in sports and turned it into a platform for leverage. Smith led high-stakes labor battles, navigated public crises from "Deflategate" to player protests, and built a business engine that reshaped how athletes generate value beyond the field.

In his recent book, Turf Wars: The Fight for America’s Game, Smith pulls back the curtain on those moments, offering a clear look at how power, money, and influence actually operate behind closed doors. The same dynamics shaping the NFL are playing out across business and leadership today, which makes his perspective feel less like sports commentary and more like a real-time playbook.

On stage, Smith breaks down how power actually works. He shows how to negotiate when the other side has more resources, how to manage risk when every decision is public, and how to build systems that hold under pressure. His perspective is grounded in experience where the consequences were immediate and the stakes could not be higher.

When the rules of global trade are being rewritten, Kirsten Hillman is in the room.

As Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, she managed one of the world’s most important economic relationships through volatility, political turnover, and shifting trade doctrine. Trusted across party lines, she became a steady hand in Washington at a time when stability was anything but guaranteed.

She helped shape major international agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and played a key role in delivering USMCA—one of the most closely watched trade negotiations in recent history.

On stage, she breaks down what global uncertainty actually means for leaders, offering a clear, experience-backed view of how to navigate risk, protect partnerships, and make decisions when the landscape keeps changing.

Jennifer Granholm is an American lawyer, educator, author and politician who served most recently as the 16^th United States Secretary of Energy, and previously as the two-term governor of Michigan. As governor, she spearheaded Michigan’s economic recovery after the Great Recession by diversifying the state’s economy to focus on clean energy and revitalizing the auto industry to build electric vehicles. 

As Secretary of Energy (2021-2025), Granholm restructured the U.S. Department of Energy to focus on research and development of advanced clean energy solutions and, importantly, deployment of zero-carbon technologies. She oversaw $200 billion of U.S. DOE investments into companies and projects to accelerate the clean energy transition. During her tenure as Secretary, thanks to the policies and laws that she helped to shape, the country saw record deployment of clean energy — adding the equivalent of 30 Hoover Dams of zero-carbon energy to the nation’s electricity grid in 2024, more than twice as much solar power deployed as ever before. Due to incentives to manufacture in America, businesses announced almost 1,000 factories were coming or expanding in the U.S. to build clean energy products -- solar panels, EVs, batteries, small nuclear reactors, clean hydrogen, geothermal and more. Thanks to DOE’s work, the nation’s transmission grid is seeing an 11X expansion of new transmission miles.

During her tenure as Secretary, DOE with its 110,000 employees was ranked among the Top 10 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. Secretary Granholm was named in 2024 to the "TIME 100 Most Influential People" list, and Forbes’ list of "Top Climate Leaders."

Secretary Granholm taught law and public policy at UC Berkeley from 2011-2020, specializing in clean energy and public leadership. A former Attorney General of Michigan (1998-2002) and an honors graduate of Harvard Law School (1987), she is the author of A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future, has penned scores of articles and opinion pieces on clean energy, and continues to play a leading role in shaping America’s energy future. Heralded for her forward-looking insight, Granholm brings a balanced and nuanced perspective sorely needed in today's divisive times. 

From a family ranch in Colorado's San Luis Valley to the Cabinet Room, the U.S. Senate, and the ambassador's residence in Mexico City, Ken Salazar has spent a lifetime helping shape America's future.

A fifth-generation Coloradan whose family has lived in the American Southwest for more than four centuries, Salazar brings a worldview shaped by deep personal roots and decades of public service. As U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Secretary of the Interior, and U.S. Senator, he worked at the center of some of the defining issues shaping North America, including immigration, border security, energy, trade, and economic opportunity. His forthcoming book, Borderlands: My Fight for an Inclusive America, reflects his lifelong commitment to building stronger connections across communities and across borders.

Drawing on a career spent navigating complex challenges across government, diplomacy, and business, Salazar helps audiences understand the forces reshaping the United States and its relationship with Mexico. He offers a thoughtful perspective on leadership, public service, the opportunities that emerge when people work across divides, and on the urgent need for a New American Alliance.

Alex Spiro is the lawyer people call when the stakes are sky-high and the spotlight is unforgiving. A former Manhattan prosecutor and former coordinator of an autism children’s program Harvard’s psychiatric hospital, he brings behavioral insight to every decision, tactic, and read of the room. He has represented Jay-Z in cases that tested the limits of brand protection, defended Alec Baldwin in the “Rust” matter, and navigated legal firestorms for clients who make headlines by simply walking into a room. Spiro teaches at Harvard Law School, is Chairman of Glassbridge Enterprises, and advises companies operating at the frontier of innovation and risk.

As a speaker, Spiro uncovers what really happens when pressure closes in. Drawing on trials that dominated the news cycle and boardrooms that demand absolute precision, he shows how risk is read, narratives are shaped, and decisions made at the edge hold steady. Audiences leave with a sharper sense of how to read people, manage conflict, and perform when the margin for error is nearly zero.

Jonathan Kanter — Leading Authority on AI, Competition, and the Future of Market Power

As the former Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the U.S. Department of Justice (2021–2024), Jonathan Kanter has been at the forefront of the most defining economic and technological battles of our time—namely, the rise of artificial intelligence, digital dominance, and fair competition in global markets. Widely regarded as one of the nation’s most influential antitrust thinkers, he led landmark efforts to modernize enforcement for the AI era, ensuring innovation thrives while preventing monopoly abuses from stifling new entrants.

Today, Kanter is uniquely positioned to help companies understand what’s coming next. His insights translate complex regulatory shifts into clear, strategic guidance for leaders navigating rapid technological change. Whether discussing responsible AI deployment, market fairness, or the evolving dynamics between Big Tech and emerging disruptors, Kanter delivers a powerful message: organizations that prepare for competitive resilience now will be the ones shaping the future economy.

Perfect for leadership teams, corporate boards, and industries undergoing digital transformation, Kanter’s keynotes and conversations equip audiences with a forward-looking playbook to stay compliant, innovative, and ahead of the curve in a world where AI is rewriting the rules.