General Session

Mike Walsh is a futurist for leaders, internationally renown for his visionary and pragmatic insights on how organizations can leverage AI for reinvention. A regular columnist for the Harvard Business Review, a strategic advisor to Fortune 50 corporations, and a global nomad - he is the author of three bestselling books, most recently: ‘The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart when machines are smarter than you’. He has a rare talent for connecting emerging technologies, cultural shifts, and commercial strategies — crafting insights that bridge the present to the future with clarity, relevance, and a compelling touch of wit.

At the heart of Mike Walsh's work is a singular focus on redefining leadership for the AI age. Unlike other futurists who concentrate on predicting technological advances or broad societal trends, Walsh zeroes in on how leaders must fundamentally reimagine their role in a world where machines are increasingly capable of making complex decisions. His key insight is that traditional leadership approaches, built for an analog era of predictable business cycles and hierarchical organizations, are no longer sufficient. Instead, leaders must develop new capabilities to harness data and AI while maintaining their essential human judgment and ethical principles.

Walsh believes that the real challenge isn't just understanding the technology itself, but rather how leaders can adapt their decision-making, develop new mental models, and reshape their organizations to effectively combine human and machine intelligence. His emphasis on the human dimension of technological change makes his insights particularly valuable for business leaders navigating digital transformation.

On a personal note, Mike’s ethnic background is as diverse as his experiences. Born in Australia to parents of mixed Asian and European heritage, he has lived, worked, and traveled across many countries, embracing a truly global perspective.
A prolific writer and sought-after commentator, Mike’s insights have been featured in leading global publications such as Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. As a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, he tackles cutting-edge leadership themes ranging from data-driven decision-making and agile organizations to algorithmic management and AI ethics. Through his popular podcast Between Worlds, Mike engages with bold thinkers, innovators, and disruptors from across industries. He also produces The Future is Elsewhere, a YouTube series offering fresh perspectives from dynamic locations like Seoul, Mexico City, Tokyo, and Istanbul, bringing global trends and future forward ideas to life.

Mike is an accomplished author with three published books and a fourth on the way, focused on the future of AI Agents, set to release in early 2026. His most recent work, The Algorithmic Leader, provides an optimistic and practical roadmap for harnessing AI, automation, and algorithms to transform leadership and reshape organizations. The book has achieved global success, with translations available in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Polish, and Russian. In his 2014 release, The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas, Mike foresaw groundbreaking innovations such as micro satellite networks, cryptocurrencies, remote work, life extension technologies, self-driving cars, drones, digital biology, digital activism, and the commercialization of space. His debut book, Futuretainment, published by Phaidon in 2009, earned the prestigious Art Director’s Club design award in New York. It accurately predicted the impact of smartphones on media and marketing, as well as the rise of social media, digital influencers, streaming platforms, and the emergence of the Metaverse.

Kylen Sharpe is an Agent in the Music department at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Sharpe is based in the Nashville office and works with such artists as Tim McGraw, Billy Currington, Shaboozey, Niko Moon, Danae Hays, Aaron Watson, Tyler Braden and developing clients Walker Montgomery, Clayton Mullen and Reid Haughton.  She is also responsible for booking fairs, festivals and rodeos throughout the mid-South for CAA's entire country roster including Keith Urban, Jelly Roll, Zac Brown Band, Sam Hunt, Cody Johnson and others.  

Sharpe began her career at APA and joined CAA in 2010.

Sharpe sits on the board (and serves as Vice Chair) at Monroe Harding and serves as a mentor, helping a young people transition out of the foster care system and in to adulthood.  She also serves as a mentor inside CAA working with a group of developing women in the support staff.  In 2015, Sharpe won the International Entertainment Buyers Association’s Rookie of the Year award.  In 2018, she was featured as an “Agent to Watch” in Variety’s music issue.

Sharpe graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a degree in Microbiology. 

Shawn McSpadden was born in Ft. Worth Texas but considers Nashville home.  Shawn attended Franklin Road Academy, where he played football and baseball, helping win two state championships, was captain of the football team, and President of his senior class.

College life started at Liberty University, followed by a transfer to Belmont University in the Fall of 1988. While attending Belmont, Shawn and his father Gary McSpadden started McSpadden Music Group where he was able to develop and publish artists and writers.

McSpadden Music Group grew quickly and became McSpadden-Smith Music with a full-scale management company as well as a catalog of over 20 staff songwriters and over 3,500 copyrights. Songs published by McSpadden - Smith Music were recorded by artists such as Faith Hill, Vince Gill, She Daisy, Earth Wind and Fire, Amy Grant and many others. The catalog contained over 30 #1 chart topping songs in both the Country and Christian Billboard charts. In 1998 McSpadden - Smith was purchased by Music and Media International and Shawn took over as VP/GM of Word Music publishing.

During his time as VP/GM for Word Music Publishing he also added the title of Senior VP of Artist and Repertoire for Word/Warner Bros. Records where he worked with Randy Travis, Sixpence None the Richer, MuteMath and Robert Randolph, among others. In 2004 Shawn left Word/ Warner Bros. Records to team up with Greg Hill at Greg Hill Management and began managing artists in both the Country and Christian industry.

 In 2006 the company became a part of Red Light Management where he worked alongside Coran Capshaw to develop the Nashville office and roster.

In 2023 after many years at Red Light Management Shawn became Managing Partner at Range Media Partners in Nashville Tennessee. Range Media Partners is a diverse company representing talent in Film/TV, Music, Sports and Influencers with offices in Santa Monica, Nashville, New York and London.

Shawn has served on the board of Music for the Soul, Belle Meade Plantation, the Gospel Music Association and NARAS. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Academy of Country Music and is Chairman of the board for the Academy’s Lifting Lives.  He completed Leadership Music in 2001 and is involved with Habitat for Humanity along with other charities.

Kim Lear is a writer, researcher, and the founder of Inlay Insights. She is known for skillfully weaving eye-opening statistics, insightful stories, and relevant case studies to make presentations come alive. Previously, Kim was the content director at BridgeWorks, a research firm dedicated to generational and millennial trends. Her undergrad research focused on baby boomers and longevity, and her post-grad work centered on millennials and social media trends. She is currently in her ninth year of a longitudinal study on leadership.

Kim was recently named one of today’s best speakers by Meetings and Conventions Magazine, and she appeared as keynote speaker before some of the most renowned companies in the world. She has received rave reviews from clients such as American Express, Cisco Systems, Deloitte, Disney, General Mills, LinkedIn, Mastercard, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Wells Fargo, and more.

In addition to speaking, Kim was head of research on the book Gen Z @ Work. She has written whitepapers on generational wealth transfer, retirement trends, and Gen Z’s impact on higher education. Kim is the writer of the popular Substack, Kids These Days. She has been featured on NPR and national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, USA Today, and TIME magazine.

She is a highly sought-after generational expert and serves as an advisor to FORE, an AI startup focused on predictive analytics for attrition. She also volunteers for The 78 Cents Project, an organization dedicated to helping young women develop strong presentation skills.

When not delving into the minutia of human behavior, Kim can be found spending time with her husband and daughters in Minneapolis.

Katie Horwitch is a nationally recognized author, speaker, mindset coach, media correspondent, and self-talk activist. She is the founder of WANT: Women Against Negative Talk, a platform that gives women tips, tools, motivation, and inspiration to live fearlessly by shifting their negative self-talk patterns. Her first book, Want Your Self: Shift Your Self-Talk and Unearth The Strength In Who You Were All Along, (October 2023, Sounds True), guides you to change your self-talk at the deepest level—so you can move forward fearlessly into the life you were meant to live.

“Want Your Self is a book to help you shift your negative self-talk patterns in a real, lasting way that goes far beyond ‘speaking nicely to yourself,’” Katie shares. “Instead of starting with the ‘talk’ part of self-talk, Want Your Self gets to the root of the issue by diving into the ‘self’ part of self-talk — giving you a strong base to make real shifts that last in the long run.”

Katie has spent almost two decades studying the conversations we have about ourselves, and the implications of them out in the world. She has spoken across the country — from places like SXSW and Dreamworks to corporate workshops and creative non-profits — about self-confidence, living fearlessly, and shifting the stories that help shape our negative self-talk patterns. She is the host of the WANTcast: The Women Against Negative Talk Podcast (currently in its 10th season) where she tackles subjects like loneliness, jealousy, self-worth, and inter-views visionary women about taking a pragmatic, proactive approach to the full spectrum of life's high highs and low lows. Katie is a prominently featured mindset and self-talk media expert on both national and local TV, a regular guest on NBC News Daily’s “Mental Health Check” segment, and has been praised by CNN as a “woman empowering others around the world.”

As a mindset coach specializing in self-talk, Katie helps clients work through their shame, doubt, overwhelm, and fears — both personally and professionally — so they can be proactive leaders in their own lives. She is a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Coach Practitioner by the NLP Center of New York, and uses a combination of NLP strategies as well as her own methods honed over the last decade to meet each client with deep empathy, fierce support, and a highly individualized game plan. She has consulted with and coached some of the world’s most prominent brands and leaders on building confidence and creating impact on both a micro and macro scale, and works with each client to craft systems, structures, and goals so that they walk away from Katie feeling clear, self-assured, and self-sufficient.

Katie is the ultimate “self-talk multi-hyphenate.” She was a founding editor of The Chalkboard Mag, and has been teaching group fitness for over 15 years. She is currently a top indoor cycling instructor for Equinox — where she helped launch their signature beat-based, emotion-driven class format, ANTHEM — and as a trainer for the leading audio fitness app Aaptiv, Katie brings her signature style of encouragement and mindset-based coaching to walks, runs, meditations, and cardio-based workouts downloaded by over 100K users per month. As an actor, singer, and host, she's been seen on network TV and feature films, as well as on stages both regionally and Off-Broadway. Most recently, she made solo debut by writing and performing in WANT YOUR SELF: A Book Launch Cabaret — a joyful celebration of what it means to live the full spectrum of your Self out loud. Her goal, on whatever stage or page, is to use her unique voice to help others find, use, and own theirs. She holds a BA in Drama from University of California, Irvine, where she also studied sociocultural anthropology and creative writing.

Katie lives in New York City with her husband Jeremy and dog-daughter Frankie. She spends her energy on shifting the cultural self-talk paradigm, producing engaging new content both online and off, advising creatives and entrepreneurs on how use their unique strengths to make the biggest impact possible, and singing loudly while she runs.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally.

As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. Recognized as one of the “300 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America” for 2024 by Savoy Magazine and one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s capital by Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors the weekly USA Today column, "Ask HR."

Mr. Taylor's career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit spaces. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

He is the author of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, which immediately upon its release in September 2021, was in the top three of The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling hardcover business books.

Mr. Taylor is a member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees and serves on the corporate boards of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO), Flores & Associates, and Guild Education. He previously served on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Trump Administration.

The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) named Mr. Taylor as one of its 2023 Trailblazers in Gender Equity and Diversity for his work to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women in business. In 2020, he received the Distinguished Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of Management, and he was named 2021 ALA Professional Society CEO of the Year by CEO Update.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

Jenn Graham is the Founder and CEO of Inclusivv, bringing diverse voices together for impactful conversations. As a designer, community organizer, and entrepreneur, she has built Inclusivv into the "go-to" resource with a library of over 50 topics and a global action platform. Jenn’s leadership earned Inclusivv a finalist spot in the 2022 SHRMLabs Better Workplaces Challenge Cup. Her TED talk on finding common ground highlights how conversation can bridge differences. Recognized as a “2020 World-Changing Woman in Conscious Business” and the Atlanta Business Chronicle's “Small Business Person of the Year – Rising Star” in 2019, Jenn drives social change through meaningful dialogue.