Emmy-nominated Padma Lakshmi is internationally known as a food expert, model, actress and best-selling author, as well as the recipient of the 2016 NECO Ellis Island Medal of Honor and Variety’s 2018 Karma award. Lakshmi serves as host and an executive producer of Bravo’s Emmy award-winning Top Chef, which is currently in its 16th season.

Lakshmi established herself as a food expert early in her career, having hosted two successful cooking shows and writing the best-selling Easy Exotic, which won the “Best First Book” award at the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Lakshmi followed this success with the publication of her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet. In 2016, she released her food memoir, The New York Times best-selling Love, Loss and What We Ate, which also won “Best Lifestyle, Body & Soul” at the 2017 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, followed by The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs.

In addition to her work as a writer, Lakshmi is a savvy businesswoman, having had multiple companies of her own, including her home décor line, The Padma Collection, and Padma’s Easy Exotic, a collection of frozen rices, lentils and other culinary products. In Spring of 2018, Padma collaborated with MAC Cosmetics for a worldwide capsule collection called #MACPadma.

Last year, Lakshmi became an ambassador for the ACLU, focusing on women’s reproductive health and immigration issues. She is also co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America. The EFA has educated over 32,000 teens on this devastating illness.

José Andrés cares about the numbers: 9,000, 3.7 million, 300,000. These are the numbers of meals the famous chef, his World Central Kitchen, and Chef Relief Network have served at various times to victims and first responders of natural disasters—from the recent hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico and North Carolina, to the devastating wildfires in California, earthquakes in Indonesia, and volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala.

In the past year alone, his culinary first responders have provided more than 4.8 million meals for victims of natural disasters around the world. Arriving days after Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico in 2017, Mr. Andrés and his team of chefs and volunteers prepared 3.7 million meals in kitchens across the island—a monumental effort he chronicled in his memoir, We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico One Meal at a Time. He founded World Central Kitchen after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Its mission has since expanded to discover “smart solutions to hunger and poverty.”

The internationally acclaimed culinary innovator and food advocate has received numerous achievement awards, including being named among Time magazine’s “100 most influential people” in 2018 and 2012, and the James Beard Foundation’s 2018 “Humanitarian of the Year.” In an interview with the late Anthony Bourdain of CNN’s Parts Unknown, Mr. Andrés said, “A plate of food is much more than food. It sends a message that someone far away cares about you—that you are not on your own. It’s a beacon of hope that maybe somewhere, something good is happening.”

This pioneer of Spanish tapas in the United States is also known for his avant-garde cuisine, and an award-winning group of 31 restaurants—and a food truck—located in the United States, Mexico City, and the Bahamas. He is the only chef in the world who has both a two-star Michelin restaurant and four Bib Gourmands.

Denis McDonough is no stranger to managing high profile, complex, and intractable situations. As senior principal at the Markle Foundation, the former White House chief of staff is now leading a task force to address the skills gap in the American workforce, with the goal of enabling people to succeed in an economy being reshaped by new technologies.

As the longest serving chief of staff to President Barack Obama from 2013-2017, he intently focused on restoring a working relationship with the Republican-led Congress after 2014 and provided the president with strategic advice on domestic policy, national security, and government operations. In line with the administration’s reputation for effective and ethical operations, he oversaw plans for performance and goals for federal agencies, as well as the recruitment and retention of key talent. This involved an unprecedented expansion of technology experts, engineers, and content creators within the White House and across the federal government. He also efficiently managed a 4,000-member White House staff, Cabinet secretaries, and agency leaders.

Before becoming chief of staff, Mr. McDonough served as assistant to the president and principal deputy national security advisor, leveraging his foreign policy background to deal with increasingly unpredictable situations abroad. Mr. McDonough was involved in the Navy SEAL strike against Osama Bin Laden. He led a multiagency team that provided crisis management and policy decisions during the Iran nuclear program negotiations, strategic arms reduction talks with Russia, reset with Asia, Afghanistan surge, and troop drawdown in Iraq. Prior to joining the White House, Mr. McDonough was the senior foreign policy advisor to the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, and held leadership and policy-making positions in Congress.

Mr. McDonough holds a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a master’s degree from the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Andrew Card is the Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a nonprofit whose mission is to promote democratic institutions worldwide.

He is perhaps best known for his role in the administrations of three presidents. From his perch in the West Wing, Andrew Card experienced the trials and triumphs of leadership during some of the country’s most challenging times. He served as White House chief of staff to George W. Bush, and deputy White House chief of staff to George H.W. Bush, as well as his secretary of transportation. He was the deputy assistant to the president and special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs under Ronald Reagan.

The second-longest tenured chief of staff in U.S. history, Mr. Card is the one who, on 9/11, whispered to the president that America was under attack from terrorists and then spearheaded a government-wide reorganization to respond. When Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, he coordinated the administration’s disaster relief efforts. His political life also includes running the 2000 Republican National Convention and serving as a Massachusetts state representative.

After leaving the White House, Mr. Card served in education leadership roles, most recently as president of Franklin Pierce University. Earlier, he was executive director of the Office of the Provost and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University. He was also acting dean of A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.

In private industry, Mr. Card was the vice president of governmental relations for General Motors, and acted as president and chief executive of an automotive industry trade association.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of South Carolina, attended the United State Merchant Marine Academy, and graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin has an international reputation as a scholar of applied economic policy, econometric methods, and entrepreneurship. He is the president of the American Action Forum, an independent, nonprofit organization that seeks to educate the public about the complex policy choices facing the country.

Previously he was a commissioner on the congressionally chartered Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and director of domestic and economic policy for John McCain’s presidential campaign. Before that, he was director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, where he addressed the 2003 tax cuts, the Medicare prescription drug bill, and Social Security reform. Dr. Holtz-Eakin also served as chief economist and a senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to that, he held several positions at Syracuse University and also taught at Columbia University. He has a bachelor’s degree from Dension University and a doctorate from Princeton University.

With more than 30 years of experience in the investment industry, Beverly Flaxington is a well-known human behavior and communication expert. She also provides financial and investment guidance, executive coaching, instructional design, marketing and sales support, and facilitation. As the co-founder of The Collaborative, she helps financial services firms with business development and organizational needs. She is also a lecturer at Suffolk University.

Ms. Flaxington has developed numerous trademarked processes to help teams accomplish their goals. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Planning Association’s Solution magazine, Investment News, and other publications. She is a blogger for Psychology Today online and writes a weekly column called “Ask Bev” for Advisor Perspectives magazine. She is the author of several books, most recently The Essential Sales Guide for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master of business administration degree in management from Suffolk University.

Shachar Kariv, PhD, is a professor and distinguished teaching fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and the Benjamin N. Ward Professor of Economics and department chair at the university. Dr. Kariv has conducted research in experimental and behavioral economics to understand individual preferences and attitudes toward risk and time, and is considered a leading game theorist. He is also the co-founder and chief scientist at Capital Preferences.

Previously, Dr. Kariv served as the faculty director of the experimental Social Science Laboratory at UC Berkeley. He has also held visiting professorships at Stanford, Princeton, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, European University Institute, and Norwegian School of Economics, among others. He has received numerous awards, including the Sloan Research Fellowship and special recognition for distinguished excellence in teaching from UC Berkeley. Dr. Kariv has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tel Aviv University, and a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from New York University.

As president of the consulting firm Red Zone Marketing, Maribeth Kuzmeski, PhD, and her team consult with top financial professionals who manage up to $1 billion in client assets. She has helped numerous advisors increase sales and profitability through the development and implementation of strategic and tactical marketing plans. She also teaches marketing at Columbia University.

Dr. Kuzmeski is the author of seven books, including the best seller The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life. She is a contributor to USA Today, Forbes, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Additionally, Dr. Kuzmeski hosts a podcast, runs her own charitable foundation, and is an international keynote speaker. She holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Syracuse University, a master of business administration degree in marketing from The George Washington University School of Business, and a doctorate in business administration from Oklahoma State University.

Kathy Jones is a Senior Vice President, Chief Fixed Income Strategist for the Schwab Center for Financial Research (SCFR). In this role, she is responsible for interest rate and currency analysis, as well as fixed income education for investors at Schwab. Prior to joining Schwab, Kathy was a Fixed Income strategist at Morgan Stanley where she specialized in global-macro strategy covering domestic and international bonds and foreign exchange. She has also been a consultant in the alternative investment area and was previously Executive Vice President of the Debt Capital Markets division of Prudential Securities. Kathy has covered global bond, foreign currency and commodity markets extensively throughout her career as an investment analyst and strategist, working with both institutional and retail clients. She makes regular broadcast appearances on CNBC, Fox Business News, and NPR. She is often in the financial news media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and USA Today. Kathy earned her undergraduate degree with honors in English literature from Northwestern University and an M.B.A in finance from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Greg Laurence, Managing Director of RIA Sales, is responsible for the team supporting the sales and distribution of Charles Schwab Investment Management (CSIM) strategies for Schwab and Laudus Mutual Funds, Schwab Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Schwab Bank Collective Trust Funds (CTFs) to registered investment advisors.

Before joining Intermediary Sales Group at Schwab in 2009 as Regional Director and Vice President of the Midwest territory assisting in the development of new mutual funds, ETFs and CTFs to registered investment advisors and bank trust channels, Mr. Laurence was Vice President of Client Service and Marketing at Oberweis Asset Management. There he worked with both institutional and intermediary retail clients. He also spent a year at Wilshire Associates as Vice President in the Analytics Division. Prior to that, he spent almost six years with Deutsche Asset Management (Scudder Investments) in a number of positions in mutual fund distribution, most recently as Vice President of Product Management for Scudder’s Value Equity products.

Mr. Laurence earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium. He completed the Certificate Program in Financial Planning at DePaul University in Chicago and is a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner. He completed the Investment Management Education Program at University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA). He also earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF) and Chartered Mutual Funds Counselor (CMFC) designations. He holds Series 6, 7, 24, 63 and 65 licenses.

In his role as managing director of business consulting for Schwab, Jerry Cobb helps advisory firms identify and address challenges around growth, profitability, and succession.

Before joining Schwab, he provided business analysis and insight into performance improvement for several organizations. He was the director of communications and public information for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Prior to that, he was the founder of Actual Media, a communications strategy and public relations consulting firm that helped small and mid-sized firms with marketing, branding, and strategic communications. Earlier, he served as vice president of marketing for Kolbe Corp., where he helped investment advisors and others implement talent management and productivity solutions. Mr. Cobb also served as a business and financial news analyst for CNBC. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master of business administration degree in marketing from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He also studied business and economics at the University of Chicago on a fellowship.

John van Moyland brings 25 years of experience in the financial services industry to his role as head of financial products at Kensho Technologies, where he leads a team of quantitative analysts and data scientists using advanced analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing techniques to create truly differentiated custom baskets and indices. The company’s flagship family of indices captures the most innovative companies driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Prior to Kensho, Mr. van Moyland was managing director at Business Model Strategies Ltd., where he oversaw operating model design and optimization, technology strategy, and program management. Before that, he was global head of fixed income technology at Fidelity Worldwide Investment and head of regional technology for Asia at Barclays Global Investors (acquired by BlackRock). He is the co-founder of three companies, including Product Focus, Inc.

John Sileo is president of The Sileo Group, a data security think tank that provides data privacy training through keynote speaking, business coaching, and advanced seminars. The firm helps companies protect their privacy and prevent the loss of intellectual property and customer, member, and employee data. Mr. Sileo’s work is based on practical experience: He was the victim of an identity theft and embezzlement scheme that destroyed his business and almost landed him in jail.

Mr. Sileo has shared his insights with government agencies such as the Pentagon, the FDIC, Federal Reserve Bank, and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a range of corporations. He has been featured in USA Today, on CBS’s 60 Minutes, and on The Rachel Ray Show. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Harvard University.

Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of Heard Mentality and We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter. In her 20-year career in public radio, she has been the Executive Producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Radio and anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. She also served as co-host of the national morning news show, The Takeaway, from PRI and WNYC, and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel. Celeste’s TEDx Talk sharing 10 ways to have a better conversation has over 16 million total views to date.

As an NPR host and journalist, Ms. Headlee has interviewed hundreds of people from all walks of life. Through her work, she has learned the true power of conversation and its ability to both bridge gaps or deepen wounds. As a mixed race journalist of black and Jewish descent, Ms. Headlee also speaks candidly about how to converse on race and other difficult subjects.

Ms. Headlee serves as an advisory board member for Procon.org and is the conversation expert for Plenty of Fish. She is also co-host for season three of the Scene on Radio podcast – MEN. Her work and insights have been featured on TODAY, Psychology Today, Inc., NPR, Time, Essence, Elle, BuzzFeed, Salon, Parade, and many more.

Hollie Fagan is a managing director at BlackRock, where she oversees the firm’s dedicated Registered Investment Advisor Channel and Retail Investor platforms. Her team manages distribution, marketing, and investment support for mutual funds, separately managed accounts, alternatives, iShares ETFs, portfolio construction consulting, and risk analytics. It also supports BlackRock’s business with direct-to-retail consumer platforms.

Previously, Ms. Fagan led the iShares national accounts team, which was responsible for home office relationships with national wires, regional and independent broker-dealers, private banks and custodial firms. Before that she lead the iShares internal sales desk and the iShares research and due diligence teams. Prior to joining BlackRock, she worked at Alliance Bernstein and Merrill Lynch. Ms. Fagan has a bachelor’s degree from the College of New Jersey and a master of business administration degree from Rutgers University. She holds FINRA Series 7, 24, and 66 licenses and life- and health-insurance licenses.

Joseph Duran is an entrepreneur, investor, best-selling author, and industry speaker. He is the chief executive officer and a founding partner of United Capital, a financial life-management company that helps clients meet personal as well as financial goals. Investment News and Money.com have published his columns, and he is a frequent contributor to programs on CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, and PBS. He has received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Schwab Pacesetter IMPACT® awards. He is the author of The Money Code: Improve Your Entire Financial Life Right Now.

Previously, Mr. Duran founded and served as president of Centurion Capital, which he sold to General Electric Private Asset Management. He has a bachelor’s degree from Saint Louis University, a master of business administration degree in marketing from the University of California, Berkeley, Walter A. Haas School of Business, and a master of business administration degree in finance from Columbia Business School. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst®

Shirl Penney is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and a member of the Board of Directors of Dynasty Financial Partners, a leading provider of investment and technology platforms for independent wealth management advisory firms. He began the firm in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis to improve the financial advisor model by building a service platform that allows advisors to better serve clients and efficiently grow their businesses.

Previously, Dynasty, Mr. Penney worked at Citigroup Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley Smith Barney) in various leadership roles, including director of private wealth management and head of executive financial services. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and is regularly quoted in various financial publications. Investment News named him to its 2015 list of 40 most influential people in wealth management under the age of 40 and to its 2016 inaugural list of “Icons and Innovators” in wealth management. He has a bachelor’s degree from Bates College.

A sought-after speaker and investment strategist, Ron Carson is the founder and chief executive officer of Carson Group, one of the largest wealth-management firms in the country, established with a vision of delivering extraordinary customer service. The firm services financial advisors and investors through Carson Wealth, Carson Group Coaching, and Carson Group Partners, which helps advisors improve client service and grow their businesses. He is the co-founder of aRIA, a think tank and study group, and of Advisor Growth Strategies, a consulting firm serving the wealth management industry.

Mr. Carson regularly appears on Barron’s top advisor lists, and is one of only two independent advisors in the publication’s Hall of Fame. Forbes named him one of America’s top wealth advisors. He is the best-selling author of Tested in the Trenches, Avalanche, and The Sustainable Edge. Mr. Carson has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He is a Certified Financial Planner™, a Certified Fund Specialist®, and a Chartered Financial Consultant®.

A former U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter pilot, Anthony “AB” Bourke is the founder and chief executive officer of Mach 2 Consulting, where he applies the same tools and techniques that made him a premier pilot to the competitive world of business. His training firm works with top management teams worldwide to help them implement the Feedback Loop, his battle-tested system that helps business leaders execute at a higher level and achieve their goals.

Mr. Bourke has flown tactical missions all over the world, piloted high-performance aircraft, and was one of the first to fly his F-16 over New York City in the homeland defense efforts of September 11, 2001.

Previously, Mr. Bourke and fellow fighter pilots formed the global management training company Afterburner, Inc. During his time as chief executive and president, Inc. magazine twice named Afterburner to its list of the 500 fastest growing companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

A leading historian and political commentator, Niall Ferguson, PhD, believes the key to explaining world history, the present, and the future lies in understanding the power of social networks and how they challenge hierarchical structures like government and religion. The latest of his 14 books, The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from Freemasons to Facebook makes the case for social networks as drivers of power and change in human history and predicts which hierarchies will withstand the latest wave of network disruption. His other books, including multiple best sellers, have covered such varied topics as the financial history of the world, the role of the House of Rothschild as the world’s banker, institutional decay, and the geopolitics of Germany, China, Britain, and the United States. He has won numerous awards for his books and several have been made into television documentaries. His weekly opinion columns appear in the Boston Globe and Sunday Times of London.

Dr. Ferguson is currently the Milbank Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a senior fellow of the Center for European Studies at Harvard. He also serves as the managing director of Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical advisory firm he founded that provides custom research and advice for select clients in the financial, energy, technology, and industrial sectors. He is a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a distinguished scholar at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. Dr. Ferguson previously served as a professor at the London School of Economics, Harvard University, and New York University Stern School of Business.

He holds a degree in history, a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University, and was a research fellow and a lecturer at Cambridge University.

For Rohit Bhargava, predicting trends is about “curating observations of the accelerating present.” An authority on trends, marketing, and innovation, he runs the Non-Obvious Company, a consultancy that helps leaders and their teams see what others miss, enabling them to identify and seize new opportunities. Through trainings and workshops, Mr. Bhargava’s team helps companies with innovation, leadership, mindful management, sales, marketing, and employee engagement.

He has been recognized alongside visionary business leaders like Sir Richard Branson and Tom Peters as a “Top 100 Thought Leader in Trustworthy Business Behavior.” He is a popular keynote speaker and the author of five books, including his 2015 Wall Street Journal bestseller Non-Obvious: How To Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future, which he updates annually with new predictions. In addition to consulting and speaking, Mr. Bhargava teaches marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University. His personal “Influential Marketing Blog” has been featured in global media and named by AdAge magazine as one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world. He regularly appears or has been featured in Harvard Business Review and The Guardian, and on NPR.

Previously, he was senior vice president of global strategy and planning for Ogilvy, and earlier served as an executive producer for Leo Burnett Australia, both global advertising agencies. He holds a bachelor of business administration degree and a bachelor’s in English Literature from Emory University, as well as a master’s degree in professional writing and editing from George Mason University.

Janet L. Yellen, PhD, is currently a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the Brookings Institution. She is most recognized for her role as chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System during the economic recovery that followed the financial crisis. Under her watch, the country experienced the third-longest economic expansion in history. As the first woman to serve as head of the central bank, she oversaw a period of strong job growth and the start of monetary policy normalization. Dr. Yellen helped sustain a period of economic prosperity in which U.S. stock markets outperformed the rest of the world, inflation remained stable, and the unemployment rate declined. As part of her focus on reducing unemployment, she advocated for job training programs to enable American workers to attain skills needed for in-demand jobs.

Greg Valliere cuts through the rhetoric and partisan maneuvering to offer observations about how politics in Washington, D.C., affects financial markets. He brings more than 30 years of experience to his role as chief political strategist at Horizon Investments. Mr. Valliere researches the actions of Congress, the White House, and the Federal Reserve in guiding U.S. economic and monetary policies. He is frequently quoted in the nation’s financial press and is a regular guest on several television and radio news programs.

Before joining Horizon Investments, Mr. Valliere was the chief policy strategist for Potomac Research Group and Soleil Securities Corporation. He previously held strategic roles at Charles Schwab’s Washington Research Group and was the research director at The Washington Forum, a group he co-founded in 1974. He began his career at F-D-C Reports, a trade publication monitoring the pharmaceutical industry.

Mr. Valliere holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The George Washington University.

Liz Ann Sonders investigates economic trends, reads investor sentiment, and crunches the numbers to analyze the nation’s economic health. As chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, she is responsible for market and economic analyses, investor education, and other investment strategy activities. She is also a senior vice president at Windhaven Investment Management, Inc., and serves on its Investment Committee.*

Ms. Sonders is a regular guest and guest host on CNBC programs, including Nightly Business Report, and on Fox Business Network, Bloomberg TV and Radio, CNN, and the PBS NewsHour and is frequently quoted in financial publications.

*Schwab and Windhaven are affiliated companies and subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation.

As chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab, Jeffrey Kleintop analyzes and discusses international markets, trends, and events to help U.S. investors understand their significance and financial implications. He provides research, commentary, and actionable insights to Schwab’s client-facing teams and the firm’s Investor Services and Schwab Advisor Services clients. Mr. Kleintop is frequently cited in print, including in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Barron’s, and Financial Times. He is also a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business Network, PBS, and ABC News.

Prior to joining Schwab, Mr. Kleintop served as chief market strategist at LPL Financial.