Mo Gawdat is the Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], an elite team of engineers that comprise Google’s futuristic dream factory. In the past ten years, he has made happiness his primary topic of research, diving deeply into literature and conversing on the topic with thousands of people in more than a hundred countries. He is also a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded more than twenty businesses. He speaks Arabic, English, and German. In 2014, motivated by the tragic loss of his son Ali, Mo began pouring his findings into his first book, “Solve for Happy.”
Here are some words from Mo on his book:
“This book is my attempt to fulfill the task assigned to me by my happiness idol, my wonderful son, Ali. My hope is that by sharing his message, his peaceful way of living, I may be able to honor his memory and continue his legacy.” – Mo Gawdat
Kelly Hatfield is co-founder of Enginuity Advantage, Advantage Staffing Group, Enginuity Virtual Recruiter and Impact Real Estate Real Estate Group based in Everett, Washington. She has been in the recruiting and HR field for over 20-years and loves serving others. Kelly and her business partner have built three successful companies with the purpose of helping others succeed and delivering remarkable results. Kelly and her team strategically align themselves as “The Partner of Choice” with clients and strive to be the first place clients call when they are looking for extraordinary service, quality, and reliability. The resulting outcome has been an outstanding referral network that has built and continues to build their companies.
As Co-Founder and Owner of Enginuity Advantage, Advantage Staffing Group and Enginuity Virtual Recruiter, April (together with her amazing partner) has created and developed three successful businesses aimed at matching exceptional talent with the top organizations. With 17 years in the human resources and staffing realm, April has experience, knowledge and a love for people and aims to offer solutions to all who are served. Being a natural problem solver, she prides herself on developing and leading a team of recruiting professionals whose mission is focused on connecting people to opportunity. Through creative and exhaustive methods, the Enginuity Group successfully matches the right talent with the right businesses each and every day.
David Winter is the American Council of Engineering Companies Engineer of the Year. David is CEO of Hart Crowser. He has been with Hart Crowser for nearly 27 years total and steadily worked up through the ranks as a staff engineer, project manager, market leader, officer, and now President and Chief Executive Officer. Through those many years he has organized and led many company initiatives, targeted and overseen expansion into new geographic regions and into new technical disciplines, negotiated and integrated acquisitions, and mentored young staff in business, project management, and client development.
It’s Steven’s job to set and execute GoDaddy’s vision of providing elegant, end-to-end technology solutions for their more than 14.5 million small business customers. He also heads up the Online Bookkeeping and WorkSpace teams.
Steven brings over a decade of experience from Intuit, where he built solutions to help small businesses use the Web to grow and run their stores. He also has small business experience as the founder of a Web company that simplified shopping for insurance. Steven earned an M.B.A. from Stanford and a B.A. in physics from the University of North Carolina.
After hours, Steven serves as President of the Board of the Bay Area Glass Institute, a non-profit glass studio, and enjoys spending time with his wife Allison and their son, Jackson, at many sports and arts events.
Lee Caraher is the CEO of Double Forte PR & Digital Marketing; an acclaimed communication strategist, she’s known for her practical solutions to big problems. Her company works with some of the top consumer and technology brands in the country. Lees the author of Millennials & Management based on her experience with failing and then succeeding at retaining Millennials. Her next book, The Boomerang Principle will be published in April 2017.
Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high producing teams who have fun together at the same time. She is a straight talker who doesn’t hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humor have gotten her out of a lot of trouble.
Lee is active in the community and currently serves on three nonprofit boards. A graduate of Carleton College with a degree in Medieval History, which she finds useful every day, Lee lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two sons, and a blind cat.
Hilary Laney is the President of Evia, Inc (formerly Tri-Digital). She has been at Evia for over 12 years, and she has held the position of president for nearly three years. During her time as President, she has been responsible for the growth of the company from 11 employees to over 35 today, and revenue growth 71%. Hilary has achieved this by anticipating clients needs and expectations for the future and working closely with her team to develop innovative solutions. Most recently, she has overseen the launch of Evia’s first product, a self-managed virtual events platform, as well as the first-ever rebranding of the 23-year-old company.
Hilary knows that every organization has a story to tell to their employees, partners, and customers. In a virtual world, these stories can be told through videos, social posts, blogs, infographics, and on and on. The problem most companies are faced with today, is there are TOO MANY options for releasing content to their audience, so it often feels disconnected. This is where Hilary and her team at Evia have made an impact. They are experts in sharing the stories of their customers, and she embodies the company’s mission: to unify people through access to relevant content.
Hilary has applied her talents to philanthropic efforts as well. She is always keeping her eyes and ears open to the community around her so she can work with them to help achieve their goals rather than simply donating checks. A few of the organizations she is most committed to are: Friends of Youth, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, TEDxSeattle, and the Museum of History And Industry (MOHAI), where she is a candidate to join the Board of Trustees.
Larry Ransom is founder and president of The Synergy Network and Brain on Future. He earned his master’s degree in applied behavioral science from Bastyr University. Larry worked for over 10 years with Jim Bergquist, founder, and president of bizFuture’s Consulting Company, coaches to the world-famous Pike Place Fish Market.
Larry has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Starbucks, Hallmark, and more, providing his expertise as a trainer and coach in building high-performance cultures and teams. His clients also include a number of high-profile individuals such as a Platinum Recording Artist, an Emmy Award Winning Director, and a National Best Selling Author.
Larry’s passion is to empower individuals to take responsibility for their passionate purpose and creativity, so they can produce results beyond what they might normally imagine. Larry believes in the concept of ownership mindset where each team member not only takes ownership for his/her individual role within the team but also takes ownership of the overall success of the organization.
Once team members have been given the tools and strategies to tap into their power and passion, Larry gives them the opportunity to invest and commit themselves as a member of the team and to take a stand for the overall objectives and vision of the organization.
Larry’s focus is to produce results you can measure. Larry’s technology for aligning, engaging and inspiring your team equates to results that you can see.
Jonathan Martin was born in California but raised in Auburn, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and started coolblueweb from his basement in 2009. He loves getting to see the impact of his work in the community and enjoys the hard-working, fun-loving culture at the company office. When he isn’t at the office, Jonathan can be found rock climbing or spending time with his wife, two daughters, and son. His favorite Seattle landmark is Alki Beach.