Voted one of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts, Top 100 Sales Influencers by LinkedIn, and Top 41 Motivational Speakers. Meridith Elliott Powell is an award-winning author, keynote speaker and business strategist. With a background in corporate leadership and sales, her career expands over several industries including banking, healthcare and finance. Meridith worked her way up from entry-level to earn her position in the C-Suite. She is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame, Chair of the National Speakers Association, A Master Certified Business Growth Strategist, A Certified Executive Coach and Certified Speaking Professional. In addition, Meridith is an invitation-only author for LinkedIn with more than 600,000 learners taking her courses around the world. With a passion for helping her clients learn the strategies they need to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage. Meridith has a cutting-edge message, rooted in real-life examples and real-world knowledge. She is the author of nine books, including “THRIVE: Turning Uncertainty to Competitive Advantage” named Top Sales Book, and Who Comes Next? Leadership Succession Planning Made Easy, written with Dr. Mary Kelly. Who Comes Next? solves one of the biggest challenges in business today – building your leadership bench. Both books have won the top honors for the Benjamin Franklin Independent Books Sellers Award. One of the highest honors for business books. Meridith is regularly featured in publications such as Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Investment News, and American Banker among others. High energy and highly interactive, she helps leaders and business owners learn the new rules of success today, and the strategies they need to Thrive in Uncertainty. You can find her inspiring message and strategies on both of her podcasts: Sales Logic – the “logical” approach to selling successfully in challenging times, and THRIVE – where Meridith interviews leaders, sales professionals and business owners who have transformed their organizations to turn uncertainty to opportunity. In her highly engaging keynote-speaking sessions, Meridith shares how you can think, feel and most importantly react to uncertainty, and the power of what you can do to start to control change rather than have change control you. Meridith shows her audiences how to attract more business, retain top talent, and leap into position to win in a constantly shifting marketplace. Meridith always deliver practical solutions to businesses toughest challenges. No walking on coals, no breaking boards, just real-life strategies you can put into place first thing Monday morning. When not coaching or keynoting, Meridith can be found on her favorite hiking trail, riding her mountain bike, or endlessly chasing little white golf balls on courses round the country.

Michael Akinwumi is the Chief Responsible AI Officer at the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) where he is tasked with critical responsibilities, including the development and implementation of Responsible AI policies and guidelines that prioritize fairness, privacy, security, explainability, reliability and non-algorithmic solutions. He provides strategic oversight and leadership, collaborating with senior management to advocate for ethical AI practices in housing and lending, and assess potential risks associated with AI use in housing and lending. Stakeholder engagement and education are part of his portfolio, involving interactions with both internal and external parties to gather input, educate employees, and ensure adherence to Responsible AI principles. Moreover, he represents NFHA in industry discussions, advocating for responsible AI practices and staying current with emerging regulations and ethical frameworks to educate providers of housing and lending AI products and services on the need for compliance and alignment with national and global Responsible AI standards.

Previously, he led governance engineering, recommender systems, and machine learning solutions for various sectors, such as fintech, banking, and insurance. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Alberta and has multiple certifications and honors in data analysis and mathematical modeling.

Dr. Akinwumi lives his belief that “only a life lived for others is worth living.”