Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison.”
Robert Ballard : Titanic
Best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Kennedy’s boat, PT-109.
Alexander Blass : American Innovator
Wharton and Oxford-educated, Alexander Blass is an internationally acclaimed American innovator. He has traveled to over 50 countries and appeared in hundreds of media outlets. He is the grand prize winner of the Daily Record’s “Top Innovator of the Year” Award, which credited him with “revolutionizing charitable giving” for inventing person-to-person “crowd” fundraising technology, which rapidly spread worldwide on the Internet and has helped countless people. He presently serves as CEO of the Innovation Institute of America, based near Washington, DC.
John Cleese : Comedian
John Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films. In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred in A Fish Called Wanda. He has also appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films, two Harry Potter films, and the last three Shrek films.
Benjamin Zander : Boston Philharmonic
Benjamin Zander is the conductor of The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a guest conductor around the world. With London’s famed Philharmonia Orchestra, he is recording the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies for Telarc, recordings which have been received with extraordinary critical acclaim and several awards.
John Winsor : Advertising Pioneer
John Winsor is a leading strategic marketing and product innovation thinker especially known for his work in collaboration, co-creation and crowdsourcing. He is also a respected author of Baked In: The Power of Aligning Marketing and Product Innovation, Spark: Be more Innovative through Co-Creation and Beyond the Brand: Why Engaging the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business.