2026 Annual Meeting Speakers

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Check back regularly as we announce more speakers leading up to June 11!

John Hope Bryant

Founder, Chairman, and CEO Operation HOPE

John Hope Bryant is an American entrepreneur, prominent thought leader, author, philanthropist, and a global authority on financial literacy, economic empowerment, and inclusive capitalism. Named to the prestigious Forbes BLK50 List in December 2024 and TIME Magazine’s inaugural The Closers List, recognizing 18 global leaders working to close the racial wealth gap, Bryant has dedicated his career to transforming economic systems for underserved communities and ensuring inclusive growth in the AI-driven future.

John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, Inc., the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of financial literacy services for youth and adults. He is also the founder of John Hope Bryant Holdings, Bryant Group Ventures, and Bryant Group Advisors. Until June of 2024, he previously led The Promise Homes Company, which he successfully recapitalized in 2021 with a $200 million credit facility—one of the largest Black-owned capital raises in over a decade.

Referred to as the “Conscience of Capitalism” by Fortune 500 CEOs, Bryant’s advocacy helped make financial literacy the policy of the United States Federal Government under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He also successfully led efforts to rename the U.S. Treasury Annex to the Freedman’s Bank Building, recognizing the unfinished economic work of Abraham Lincoln for freed slaves.

John Hope Bryant is a best-selling author. He is one of the only Black thought leaders in the world today writing on economics and business leadership, with six books to his name, including the national bestseller, Financial Literacy for All (2024). He is a CNBC Contributor, host of the iHeart Radio podcast
“Money & Wealth with John Hope Bryant”, and a member of both the CNBC Global Financial Wellness Council and the CNBC CEO Council.

Bryant’s impact has been recognized with numerous awards, including Oprah Winfrey’s “Use Your Life” Award, American Banker’s “Innovator of the Year,” and inclusion in TIME’s 50 Leaders for the Future. He is a LinkedIn Influencer with over 3 million social media followers and has amassed over 300 million views across digital platforms through his “Straight Talk with John Hope Bryant” series. His life’s mission? To help America live up to its promise—one financially and technologically empowered person at a time.

Heather Cogar

Statewide Director; Florida Chamber of Commerce's Prosperity Initiative

Heather Cogar serves as a statewide leader with the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Prosperity Initiative, a bold effort to cut childhood poverty in half by 2030 by addressing its root causes at the ZIP code level. Her work focuses on aligning Florida’s business community, law enforcement, education systems, nonprofits, and policymakers to create sustainable pathways to self-sufficiency for families.

Heather’s leadership is grounded in both professional achievement and personal experience. After overcoming a childhood marked by foster care and instability, she went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in business and begin her career in public service as a deputy sheriff. Her time in law enforcement provided firsthand insight into the long-term consequences of childhood poverty — from literacy gaps to workforce shortages and public safety challenges.

She later transitioned into entrepreneurship, building a successful real estate career while remaining deeply engaged in community impact efforts. Today, she partners with leaders across Florida’s 67 counties — including sheriffs, chambers of commerce, school boards, and legislators — to connect existing resources, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and drive measurable economic mobility outcomes.

Heather’s work is centered on a simple but powerful belief: strong economies require strong families. By leveraging data, engaging employers, and focusing on practical, local solutions, she is helping communities build talent pipelines, reduce dependency, and create opportunity where it is needed most.

A proud mother and advocate for Florida’s future, Heather brings authenticity, strategic clarity, and contagious energy to every stage she steps on — challenging leaders to think bigger, collaborate deeper, and lead with purpose.

Nikki Greenberg

World Renowned Futurist

Rich Harwood

President & Founder, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation
Author, Speaker, Innovator

Rich Harwood, President and Founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, has devoted his career to revitalizing the nation’s hardest-hit communities, transforming the world’s largest organizations, and reconnecting institutions like newsrooms and schools to society. In 1988, after working on more than 20 political campaigns, attending Skidmore College and Princeton University, being named a Harry S. Truman Scholar, and working for two highly-respected non-profits, Rich founded The Harwood Institute when he was just
27 years old.

Over the past 35 years, Rich has developed a philosophy and practice of how communities can tackle shared problems, create a culture of shared responsibility, and deepen our civic faith. The Harwood practice of Turning Outward has spread to all 50 states and 40 countries. Today, the Harwood School makes this approach available to everyone, everywhere.

His experience working on the ground to build capacity and coalitions for change gives him a unique, powerful perspective on bridging divides and creating resilient communities. In Newtown, CT, after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Rich led the process for the community to collectively decide the fate of the school building. Currently, Rich is working deeply in iconic communities across the country to prove that Americans have the public will and ability to come together to get things done amid our real differences.

An inspiring and sought-after speaker, Rich regularly keynotes major conferences and events. He has written nine books, including Unleashed: A Proven Way Communities Can Spread Change and Make Hope Real for All and two Amazon bestsellers: Stepping Forward and The Little Field Guide for Sparking Community-Led Change. He has appeared on major media outlets, including NPR, the PBS Newshour, MSNBC, CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. And he has authored scores of articles, numerous reports, and is a regular contributor to both the The Fulcrum and the Christian Citizen.

In 2024, Rich ran a nationwide civic campaign called "Enough. Time to Build." Amid another contentious election cycle, Rich believed the country needed a new civic path, not more divisive politics, and that real change will start in our local communities. His campaign called on community leaders and active citizens to reclaim the public square from the most divisive voices and unleash our capacity as builders and doers. In 2025, Rich and the Institute are doubling down with the Campaign for the New Civic Path, anchored by Rich’s latest book The New Civic Path: Restoring Our Belief in One Another and Our Nation. This new campaign is all about supporting communities in getting on the new civic path to prove we can create real, substantive change in our communities and the country.

Eric Liu

CEO, Citizen University & Civic Evangelist

Eric Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University, which works to build a culture of powerful and responsible citizenship in the United States. He is the author of numerous acclaimed books, including most recently Become America: Civic Sermons on Love, Responsibility, and Democracy — a New York Times New & Notable Book — and Live Like a Citizen: 8 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Our Country, to be published in October 2026. He is featured in the PBS documentary American Creed and is a contributing writer at The Atlantic.

Liu served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and as the President’s deputy domestic policy adviser. He was later appointed by President Barack Obama to the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. In 2020, Liu was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he now serves on its Trust and is co-chair of its
Our Common Purpose commission on democratic citizenship. Liu founded and for nine years led the Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, and a member of the Yale University Council. Liu lives in Seattle, where he has served on the boards of the Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Board of Education, and co-founded the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. His work as a civic innovator was recognized in 2020 with an Ashoka Fellowship.

Topics:

• Live Like a Citizen: Activating Character in Service of Community
• Renewing Our Common Purpose
• Become America: How to Revive Our Belief in Democracy
• Racial Discrimination Against Asian Americans: It Needs to Stop
• Citizen Power: You’re More Powerful Than You Think
• Corporate Citizenship: The Secret to Reinvigorating Culture and Employee Engagement
• Civic Health: The Health of Our Communities Depends on It
• Making the Case for Civics Education
• The Civic Purpose of College
• Who Is Us? The New Omnicultural American Identity
• From Isolation to Community: A Commitment to Rehumanize

Brad Meltzer

Emmy nominated, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Viper and thirteen other bestselling thrillers. He also writes non-fiction books like The JFK Conspiracy, and the Ordinary People Change the World kids book series, which inspired the TV show on PBS KIDS, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum.

In addition to his fiction, Brad is one of the only authors to ever have books on the bestseller list for Non-Fiction, Advice, Children’s Books, and even comic books, for which he won the prestigious Eisner Award.

Brad is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel, and is responsible for helping find the missing 9/11 flag with his show, Brad Meltzer’s Lost History.

His books have been read by multiple U.S. Presidents. The Hollywood Reporter put him on their list of the 25 Most Powerful Authors. And his recent commencement address at the University of Michigan has been called “one of the best of all time.”

Don Yaeger

President of Greatness, Inc

As a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, business leadership coach, a thirteen-time New York Times Best-selling author, host of the top-rated Corporate Competitor Podcast, Publisher of Forbes Books, National Geographic’s “Storyteller in Residence,” and longtime Associate Editor for Sports Illustrated, Don Yaeger has fashioned a career as one of America's most provocative thought leaders.

As a speaker, he has worked with audiences as diverse as Fortune 500 companies and cancer survivor groups, where he shares his personal story. He is primarily sought to discuss lessons on achieving greatness, learned from first-hand experiences with some of the greatest sports and business legends in the world. Additionally, Don has been retained by companies and organizations to coach their leaders on building a culture of greatness by looking at Great Teams in sports and discerning the business lessons we can learn from them.

Throughout his writing career, Don has developed a reputation as a world-class storyteller and has been invited as a guest to every major talk show - from Oprah to Nightline, from CNN to Good Morning America. Few journalists can lay claim to as exciting and colorful a career as Don Yaeger.

• In three decades of reporting, the breadth of his assignments has been astounding. He has traveled the world in pursuit of stories as diverse as:
• Walking into Afghanistan with the Mujahadeen in 1988 as they fought the Soviets
• Going into Baghdad in 2003 with the victorious Iraqi soccer team as the battle between insurgents and the US Military waged around them
• Visiting China in pursuit of underworld characters counterfeiting American golf clubs
• Heading to Damascus to find the last living PLO terrorist from the 1972 Olympics
• Living with football legend Walter Payton and his family as Payton was dying
• Roaming the Middle East interviewing Iraqi athletes tortured by Saddam Hussein's son Uday, chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee
• Covering the first free national elections in El Salvador
• Traveling with candidates from both US parties during several Presidential campaigns

Yaeger began his career as a reporter for the San Antonio Light where he rose through the ranks to pen investigative features for the daily. He later moved on to the Dallas Morning News. Following his stint in Dallas, Yaeger worked as a political editor for the Florida Times-Union. After four years, he decided to dedicate himself to the pursuit of writing books.

Yaeger's first book, Undue Process: The NCAA's Injustice For All, was published in 1990. In the 30+ years since, he has penned 41 more books, including an incredible THIRTEEN New York Times Best-sellers with more than 7 million books sold.

Among his Best-sellers are:

• Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton
• Ya Gotta Believe: My Roller-Coaster Life As a Screwball Pitcher, Part-Time Father and My Hope Filled Fight Against Brain Cancer with Tug McGraw
• It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered
• I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to the Blind Side, and Beyond with Michael Oher
• Play Like You Mean It: Passion, Laugh, and Leadership in the World's Most Beautiful Game with Rex Ryan
• George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution with Brian Kilmeade
• Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War that Changed American History with Kilmeade
• Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages with David Ross
• Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans with Kilmeade
• Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field with Deion Sanders
• Born Lucky: A Dedicated Father, A Grateful Son and My Journey With Autism with Leland Vittert

Don also wrote A Game Plan For Life, with legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. It was published on Coach's 99th birthday in October 2009.

A book he wrote in 2007 about a 59-year old college football linebacker was made into a major motion picture, The Senior, released to theatres in September 2025. Movie rights to both the Duke book and Turning of The Tide, a book about a 1970 football game between the last all-white team at the University of Alabama and the fully-integrated team from the University of Southern California, have recently been sold. Both movies have been scripted and are in production.

After several years of freelancing for Sports Illustrated, Don joined the magazine's staff full-time in July 1996. Two years later he was promoted to Associate Editor, where his work was to cover not just sporting events but the off-the-field happenings which affect the world of sports. He took an early retirement from full-time work at SI in 2008 and continued to freelance for the magazine for several years. He also is Forbes.com's most-read leadership columnist.

Yaeger and his SI colleague William Nack were finalists for the prestigious National Magazine Award in the public interest category for their cover story "Who's Coaching Your Kid?: The frightening truth about child molestation in youth sports." This important piece triggered Don's appearances on programs such as Dateline, 20/20, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. It also resulted in changes to the law in several states and several youth sports organizations, including Little League of America, to require background checks of coaches and volunteers.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Yaeger has traveled extensively through his career. The Dominican Republic, Honduras, Japan, and Great Britain can be counted among the countries in which he has resided. A 1984 graduate of Ball State University (where he was selected as one of the university's “50 Graduates of Distinction” over its first century), Yaeger currently lives in Tallahassee, FL. He and his wife Jeanette have a son and a daughter.