Laura Baxter is specialized in helping and advising international leaders to find their voice and develop their leadership presence across cultures and to shape their message to be compelling, inspiring and influential on the global stage.

As an opera singer and performance coach, she has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. In her work, Presence is the key to success on and off the stage, when giving presentations and when dealing with other people.

A recipient of the prestigious Louis Sudler Award for the Arts at Emory University, she was on the faculty of Duke University pri- or to her move to Germany and has been on the faculty of the Frie- drich-Alexander-University in Erlangen, Germany, since 1999. She is co-author of several books in German and author of Dealing with Divas and Other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful Approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization!

Christian Buchholz is an expert on innovation and change. As a three-time founder, he knows the challenges of start-ups, as well as the mindset of large corporations. The founder and managing director of the verrocchio Institute is an author of several innovation books. His book, The Large Handbook of Innovation, has already received the status of a reference work. He is also the initiator of the Florence Innovation Project, the world’s largest collection of innovation methods.

Christian has worked in 21 different countries and accompanied many companies through radical transformations.

www.christianbuchholz.com

Chris Davidson is a highly experienced engineer who worked in the aviation, IT and telecoms sectors for more than 20 years. During his corporate career Chris was lucky to experience living and working internationally. During this period he developed a deep interest in how people interact with and use technology. This was driven by the rapid advancement of personal computing technology, and working in multi-cultural teams.

In 2002 Chris founded Active Presence, a niche consulting firm. The company helps people implement technology more successfully and communicate more effectively. In early 2019 Chris launched Speaker Business Builder. This unique platform supports micro-businesses, such as consultants, authors, trainers and speakers. Speaker Business Builder delivers websites that help busy, time-poor professionals grow their businesses, through effective use of online technologies.

This is Chris’ sixth book and the first he has co-authored with his fellow international colleagues.

www.activepresence.com

Ilja Grzeskowitz is a global keynote speaker, author, and economist. He was an executive manager for Germany ́s largest retail corporation, Karstadt, as well as for IKEA before he started his own consulting company in 2009. He held guest lecturing positions at the Berlin School of Law and Economics and the SRH University in Berlin, and regularly travels around the world to research future trends and developments in the field of change management.

As an author, he has published ten books (among them three bestsellers, which have been translated into ten different languages), and sold hundreds of thousand copies worldwide. Being nicknamed “Mr Change” by his clients, Ilja inspires people to develop a changemaker mindset, and supports organisations to establish a change culture that is based on purpose, diversity, and strong values.

Among his clients are big brands such as Accor, Allianz, Audi, Bayer, BASF, Biogen, BMW, Capri Sun, Continental, DPD, Kao, Lufthansa, Nespresso, Marriott, Mercedes, Pentax, P&G, Puma, Swiss, T-Mobile, Unitymedia, and Zara, as well as tradi- tional middle-sized companies.

In his change programs, he combines real-world expertise with inspiring storytelling and scientific evidence, and despite being German, rumour has it that he is even quite funny. If he is not speaking on a stage around the world, he loves to play golf, cheer for his favourite football teams (ManU and HSV) and enjoy a nice cup of coffee (always black, and lots of it).

Rebecca Jones started her first business at the age of 19 and has since established herself within the field of businesses growth through staff engagement and collaborative approaches.

She holds a Masters Degree in Education focusing on educating enterprise and entrepreneurs and has combined running her own business for over two decades with work in academia focusing on enterprise. Rebecca has nearly three decades of experience in enterprise, innovation and people development. She works with clients to engage their staff in enterprising projects, inspire innovation and enable business growth.

All of Rebecca’s work is centred around her “Stretchy Thinking” model which blends innovation thinking, business growth and mindset to build confidence within organisations and team members. She is known to various business schools, government bodies and private companies as a qualified lecturer, researcher and advisor on enterprise and the development of more innovative and enterprising individuals.

www.rebeccajones.biz

Siegfried Lange completed his Master’s in Clinical Psychology with a thesis focusing on the development of emotional intelligence. He has 15 years’ experience in retail, most of which in management.

He is a well-known radio and television personality who has a weekly slot on the Namibian Broadcasting Cooperation radio as well as Channel 7 and ad-hoc appearances on Tupopyeni and Good Morning Namibia (NBC Television). He is the co-founder of Capacity Trust.

His theories about human behaviour are uniquely insightful and have sparked many business’ direction changes in a variety of fields. His books, True Emotional Freedom and Emotionally Debt Free, have proven to be two of the most well-known Namibian emotional intelligence resources available on the market.

Siegfried is part of the founding board and is presently the Dean of the Professional Speakers Association of Namibia Academy. Because of his passion for growth, Siegfried is often involved in community upliftment projects that aim at growing capacity within those who cannot afford to do so. His motto is “Human capacity is limitless and diminishes if not challenged.”

Ogopoleng Mushi is a public relations and digital marketing strategist from Pretoria, South Africa.

She studied Human Physiology, Genetics & Psychology at the University of Pretoria while also completing a certification in Basic Neuroscience through Tuks Enterprise.

She was a campus radio presenter for TuksFM, a news anchor and producer for CAPS—the Department of Education’s online radio station and later, became a news reporter for Weekly Xposé.

She has since worked with companies such as African Response, Nedbank, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), several small businesses and start-ups, and has worked with prominent individuals such as Ilja Grzeskowitz and Fumani Shilubana.

Paul ter Wal is a former company lawyer turned employability expert and work health architect. He’s been successfully speaking, consulting, and training business executives in this area for more than 20 years. Paul is a Certified Speaking Professional and Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association. Paul is the President of the Global Speakers Federation 2019 – 2020.

Working with both employers and employees, Paul creates work happiness and loyalty. His focus is on finding the ‘non-negotiables’ that represent the core values of both the indvidual and organisation. This enhances employee engagement and organisational success—a true ‘win-win’ relationship.

Paul created the Value-to-Profit model in 2018 to give organisations a roadmap for implementing a more productive environment.

www.paulterwal.com