Growth Strategy

Why organisations work with Andy Bass His Suits & Geeks Trap framework gives leaders a named, structured diagnosis for one of the most persistent and underacknowledged barriers to growth in technology-driven businesses – the breakdown between commercial and technical functions – and a clear method for resolving it. His Start With What Works thesis (Pearson) challenges the default assumption that growth requires new investment; the argument is that most organisations are sitting on underused capabilities, relationships and knowledge that can be mobilised before new capital is sought. His C.E.O. Roadmap from Committed Action – Curiosity, Exploration, Ownership – gives leaders a specific, repeatable method for moving people from passive compliance to genuine ownership of strategic priorities. His PhD in Software Engineering and early career at BT Research Labs give him standing inside technical organisations that a leadership generalist cannot credibly claim – he can hold the room with engineers and commercial directors simultaneously. Inducted into the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame (2017) and named to Ogilvy’s #ogilvychange Big Thinkers panel – external recognitions of consulting practice, earned outside the speaking circuit. Biography highlights Founder and principal of BassClusker Consulting; advisory work spanning more than 30 industries across 12 countries PhD in Software Engineering and BSc in Computer Science and Ergonomics, both from Aston University; career began at BT Research Labs, Human Factors Division Executive educator at Oxford Saïd, Warwick, Aston and Strathclyde Business Schools; Visiting Professor in Consulting Practice, Birmingham City University Inducted into the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame (2017) by Alan Weiss Author of five books including The Suits & Geeks Trap, Start With What Works (Pearson) and Committed Action Named to Ogilvy’s #ogilvychange ‘Big Thinkers’ panel of experts Corporate clients include L’Oréal, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, KPMG and International Automotive Components Group Biography In technology-driven organisations, one of the most consistent barriers to growth is not the strategy, it is the relationship between the people who build things and the people who sell them. Andy Bass, founder of BassClusker Consulting and author of The Suits & Geeks Trap, has spent over two decades working on that specific problem: helping senior leaders diagnose and close the gap between strategic intent and organisational execution. His Suits & Geeks Trap framework identifies a pattern that recurs across industries: commercial and technical teams defaulting to stereotyping and blame, with leaders drawn into refereeing internal politics rather than facing the market. The framework, developed through advisory work with organisations ranging from Deutsche Bank and L’Oréal to mid-sized growth businesses across 12 countries, gives leaders a structured way to reverse that dynamic and redirect energy toward the customer. His parallel argument, developed in Start With What Works (Pearson), challenges what he calls one of the most persistent thinking traps in business: that growth requires new investment. Bass makes the case (supported by client work across 30 industries) that most organisations have more usable capability than they recognise. The book presents practical tools for identifying and deploying those hidden assets before leaders turn to capital-intensive alternatives. His third major framework, the C.E.O. Roadmap from Committed Action, addresses the question leaders ask most consistently: why their people do not engage with strategic priorities as fully as intended. Bass’s answer, structured around Curiosity, Exploration and Ownership, gives leaders a repeatable method for building genuine commitment rather than managed compliance. His credentials span both sides of the technical-commercial divide he studies: a PhD in Software Engineering from Aston University, an early career at BT Research Labs, executive education delivered at Oxford Saïd, Warwick, Aston and Strathclyde business schools, and induction into the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame in 2017. Key speaking topics Commercial and technical team alignment Organisational learning and execution Growth strategy using existing resources Leadership and committed action Change management and strategic engagement Organisational culture in technology-driven businesses Executive decision-making and capability development Ideal for CEOs and MDs of technology-driven, engineering-led or innovation-focused organisations managing persistent commercial-technical friction Senior leadership teams where execution consistently falls short of strategic ambition CHROs and organisational development leads working on engagement, ownership and culture in mixed commercial-technical workforces Professional services, financial services, manufacturing and growth-stage businesses navigating rapid change Audience outcomes A named framework for diagnosing commercial-technical team friction – and a clear method for resolving it before it becomes a leadership crisis Practical tools for identifying underused organisational assets and applying them to growth priorities, before seeking new capital or resource The C.E.O. Roadmap – a three-stage method for building genuine team commitment rather than surface-level compliance Sharper understanding of how leadership behaviour, not strategy alone, determines whether execution succeeds Specific questions and diagnostic approaches leaders can apply immediately to unlock stalled priorities or disengaged teams

Why organisations work with Trabucchi and Buganza The Platform Thinking Matrix gives strategy and transformation teams a structured instrument for identifying precisely where platform mechanisms can be applied to existing business models, built from a decade of research on established companies, not borrowed from startup literature. The Digital Phoenix Effect draws on analysis of 140 platform initiatives across S&P 500 companies, with detailed cases from Siemens, AXA, Eni, and Domino’s – the organisations their research is built around look like most audiences, not like Silicon Valley startups. With 100+ peer-reviewed publications in journals including the Journal of Product Innovation Management and Technovation, their frameworks can be tested against sustained evidence – not just a practitioner’s conviction codified into a model. As Scientific Directors of the Platform Thinking HUB within Politecnico’s Digital Innovation Observatories, they give organisations access to live, connected research, not a fixed set of frameworks. Shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Digital Thinking: the body that the Financial Times has described as producing the Oscars of management thinking. Biography highlights Associate Professor of Platform Thinking (Trabucchi) and Full Professor of Leadership & Innovation (Buganza), School of Management, Politecnico di Milano Co-founders and Scientific Directors of the Platform Thinking HUB within Politecnico’s Digital Innovation Observatories, and of LEADIN’Lab; Buganza chairs the EIASM International Product Development Management Conference Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024; shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award, Digital Thinking category Co-authors of Platform Thinking: Read the Past. Write the Future (Business Expert Press, 2023) – shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2024 and translated into Italian and Chinese – and The Digital Phoenix Effect (Platform Thinking Publishing, 2025) 100+ peer-reviewed articles in journals including the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Technovation, and Information Systems Journal Co-founders of Symplatform (2018), the annual international conference on digital platforms connecting researchers and practitioners Biography Most digital transformation advice is written for companies that do not yet exist. Trabucchi and Buganza study the ones that do: established firms with legacy assets, existing customer relationships, and infrastructure they cannot simply abandon. Over more than a decade at Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management, they developed Platform Thinking as a named strategic framework. It is not a description of what Uber or Airbnb do. It is a method for how any established organisation can activate its existing assets to generate the multi-sided value that platform businesses create. The Platform Thinking Matrix formalises this as a practical instrument for strategy and transformation teams. Their 2025 book, The Digital Phoenix Effect, draws on 140 platform initiatives analysed across S&P 500 companies, with cases from Siemens, AXA, Eni, and Domino’s. The argument that incumbent firms cannot compete in the platform economy on their own terms is a common one. Trabucchi and Buganza make the opposite case, and back it with sustained empirical research. Both were included in the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024 and shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Digital Thinking. As co-founders of Symplatform and Scientific Directors of the Platform Thinking HUB, they connect rigorous academic research to active practitioner communities. Their frameworks emerge from sustained, peer-reviewed inquiry – over 100 published articles across journals including the Journal of Product Innovation Management and Technovation – not from advisory work alone. Key speaking topics Platform thinking and business model transformation Legacy organisations in the platform economy The Platform Thinking Matrix Data as a platform asset GenAI and internal platform development Platform leadership and innovation management Multi-sided platforms and ecosystem strategy Ideal for Chief Strategy Officers and Chief Digital Officers leading platform transformation in established businesses CEOs and boards of legacy organisations facing disruption from platform competitors Innovation and transformation leads in non-digital-native companies Executive MBA and corporate learning audiences focused on digital business model innovation Audience outcomes A working definition of Platform Thinking and how it differs from conventional digital transformation advice The Platform Thinking Matrix as a practical framework for identifying where platform mechanisms apply to existing business models Real cases from established firms – Siemens, AXA, Eni, Domino’s – showing how legacy assets become platform advantages Clarity on the specific leadership conditions that enable platform-based change within established organisations A starting point for assessing their organisation’s platform potential against a research-backed framework

Tim Calkins: Mastering Brand Strategy and Business Communication Tim Calkins helps people and organizations build strong brands. He is an award-winning marketing professor, author, speaker, and consultant. He is Associate Chair of the Marketing Department and Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He teaches courses including Marketing Strategy and Biomedical Marketing. Tim is a prolific author. His latest book, How to Wash a Chicken – Mastering the Business Presentation (Page Two, 2018), was named Top Business Book by the IndieReader Discovery Awards, and received the Gold Prize for Business and Economics from the Foreword Indie Book of the Year Awards. Tim also wrote Defending Your Brand: How Smart Companies Use Defensive Strategy to Deal with Competitive Attacks (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Earlier, Tim wrote Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 and 2008). He was co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (Wiley, 2005) and Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World (Wiley, 2019). Tim has received numerous awards for his teaching. He won the Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, the top teaching award at Kellogg, in 2006 and 2013, making him one of just six people to have won it twice in the award’s more than forty-year history. He was a finalist again in 2022 and 2023. In 2018, he received the Top Professor Award from Germany’s Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program. He received the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award in 2008 and 2022. In 2016, Poets & Quants included him on its list of “Favorite MBA Professors.” Tim maintains a blog on brand strategy: Building Strong Brands. Inc. included the blog on its list of “Six Blogs That Can Teach You More Than an MBA.” You can find the blog at www.timcalkins.com In addition to teaching at Kellogg, Tim works with major corporations on strategy and branding issues. His recent clients include Abbott, Amgen, and Novo Nordisk. Tim began his career at the consulting firm Booz Allen and Hamilton. He joined the marketing team at Kraft Foods in 1991. During his almost 11 years at Kraft, he led brands including Miracle Whip, Taco Bell, Parkay, and DiGiorno. He was responsible for the launch of more than two dozen new products. He received his BA from Yale and his MBA from Harvard.

Meet Michelle Stacy Michelle Stacy is a business leader who knows how to scale growth and build brands that shape industries. As former President of Keurig, she grew the company from $200 million to $2.5 billion in revenue, forming strategic alliances with Starbucks, Dunkin’, and Folgers that changed the way the world drinks coffee. With more than 35 years of executive experience at Keurig, Gillette, and P&G, Michelle has led global business units, driven innovation at scale, and built high-performing teams that consistently deliver results. Michelle brings that same boardroom insight to the stage. Her keynote presentations are built around practical leadership strategies and the real-world lessons that come from building billion-dollar brands. She speaks on innovation, strategy, leadership, high-performance teams, and women in business—delivering clarity, engagement, and action for today’s complex business environment. She currently serves on the boards of iRobot, Skullcandy, and Milton’s Bakery, and has held director roles at Coravin, Hydrafacial, Tervis Tumblers, and Young Innovations. Michelle advises companies like Bellwether Coffee and Adventure Ready Brands on go-to-market strategy, customer experience, and scalable growth. Her presentations are ideal for leadership events, innovation summits, corporate kickoffs, and organizations looking to energize their teams. With compelling stories, clear takeaways, and a message that resonates from the C-suite to frontline leaders, Michelle equips audiences to lead with confidence, navigate change, and drive sustainable success. Her insights apply especially well to industries like healthcare, consumer packaged goods, technology, financial services, and nonprofit. She is a top choice for audiences navigating growth, culture change, or innovation-driven strategy.

David Avrin, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow One of the most in-demand and charismatic Customer Experience speakers and consultants in the world today, David Avrin, CSP, GSF has shared his content-rich, very entertaining and actionable presentations with enthusiastic audiences and organizations across North America and around the world. Recent presentations include Singapore, Bangkok, Melbourne, Brisbane, Antwerp, Buenos Aires, Bogota, Mumbai, Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi, Manila, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, London, Sydney, Vienna, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Johannesburg and Dubai. David helps organizations better understand and serve their changing customers and clients to help future-proof their businesses by becoming ridiculously easy to do business with. David’s business insights have been featured on thousands of media outlets around the world. He is also the author of seven books published in multiple languages including the acclaimed: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You!, Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back) and his newest book: Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With: A practical guide to giving customers what they want—when and how they want it.

Mel Abraham: Architect of Financial Freedom and Purpose-Driven Success Mel Abraham’s journey into helping others build lives filled with purpose, freedom, and impact starts with a single, eye-opening moment—thanks to a blue felt-tip drawing by his six-year-old son. It wasn’t a picture of superhero antics or playful adventures but of him, always working, seldom present as the dad he needed. That drawing wasn’t just a wake-up call; it was a roadmap to a different life—a life Mel had to choose intentionally. That moment reshaped his entire approach. It pushed him to stop living at the mercy of demands and start crafting a life on his own terms. This quest led Mel to develop what he now calls the “Money Machine,” a system that isn’t just about financial success but about creating time for what truly matters. In his USA Today bestselling book, Building Your Money Machine, Mel delves into this journey and the strategies that anyone can use to achieve personal and financial freedom. It’s not just about making more—it’s about making the most of what you have to live a life aligned with your values and dreams. With decades of experience in entrepreneurship, advising businesses and individuals, today he’s obsessed with sharing this path with you. If you’re tired of the grind and ready to take control, let’s work together to build not just a thriving business but a vibrant, fulfilling life. It’s about more than money; it’s about making every day count. Mel is blessed to be able to serve over 2 million viewers through his speaking, writing, and weekly show, where he shares the processes, frameworks, and tools to make it a reality.

Rashmi Airan: Sculpting Strategic Growth and Brilliance out of Struggle Rashmi Airan is a force of nature. A keynote speaker, consultant, and unapologetic truth-teller, she shakes up rooms with her raw, riveting story—one that challenges everything you think you know about leadership, ethics, and the hidden traps of ambition. She doesn’t just speak about resilience; she lives it, proving that even the most crushing failures can be transformed into a catalyst for growth, authenticity, and unshakable courage. As a first-generation Indian American, Rashmi was raised to chase excellence. She did just that—graduating with honors from Columbia Law School, thriving in corporate America, and building her own law practice. But success has a dark side. During the housing boom, she made a decision that, at the time, seemed small—but had devastating consequences. A single ethical blind spot, fueled by the pressure to provide for her children, led to a federal prison sentence for bank fraud. Prison shattered everything she thought she knew about herself. And then? She rebuilt—stronger, bolder, and more awake than ever. Through six months behind bars, Rashmi stripped away the layers of ego, guilt, and fear that had defined her. She emerged with a powerful message: our worst mistakes don’t define us—our response to them does. Now a “recovering government, corporate, and real estate lawyer,” Rashmi is a globally recognized speaker who fearlessly tackles the complexities of human behavior, decision-making, and ethical leadership. With 30+ years in business, law, and finance, she has a front-row seat to the pressures that push good people into bad decisions—and she’s on a mission to wake up individuals and organizations before they fall into the same traps. Her insights are backed by cutting-edge research in behavioral psychology, ethics, and leadership, and she’s partnered with global powerhouses like Coca-Cola, Cardinal Health, Merck, Comcast, Sotheby’s, and Hershey’s. Deloitte has recognized her transformational impact, and her story has been featured on ABC, PBS, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Rashmi doesn’t do surface-level inspiration—she sparks deep, uncomfortable, necessary conversations. She challenges Fortune 100 leaders, financial firms, legal teams, and women’s groups to confront their blind spots, own their decisions, and rise through their struggles with integrity and courage. Beyond the stage, she’s an avid hiker, globe-trotter, and proud mother of two. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Overtown Youth Center/Alonzo Mourning Foundation and is an Ambassador for The Key Clubhouse. Her message is simple but urgent: Life will break you. Your choices will define you. And no matter how hard you fall—you can RISE.

About Juliet Mann Juliet Mann is an experienced TV anchor, specialising in business news, currently host of The Agenda, the weekly current affairs talk show on CGTN Europe. Juliet has worked in fast-paced newsrooms across the world – in London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt – for CNBC, CNN, Sky News, TRT World and Reuters. She also appeared on BBC’s Pointless Celebrities, starred in Danny Boyle’s TV pilot Babylon and presents podcast: A Week in my Flexible Working Life. On the road as anchor and correspondent for CNN’s weekly business features show Marketplace Europe, she interviewed CEOs like Sir James Dyson, political heavyweights and influencers including EU policymakers, and bosses of global brands like Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox & Lafarge. Highlights at Sky News include having a seat on the very last transatlantic Concorde flight and interviewing sporting legends like David Beckham when London won the 2012 Olympic Games bid in Singapore. Juliet has interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the BBC, presented for corporate channels including EY TV and HSBC TV, and written occasional travel & features pieces for the Daily Telegraph and Economia magazine. She also comperes events and awards ceremonies and moderates discussion forums across Europe and the United States, on a vast range of topics from entrepreneurship to sustainability. Juliet is British, read Politics at Bristol University and speaks good French.

Meet Levi Roots Levi Roots is one of UK television’s most successful entrepreneurs. Best-known for pitching his Reggae Reggae Sauce on Dragon’s Den in 2007, Levi saw unprecedented success almost overnight, and has gone from strength to strength since. The Levi Roots brand has encompassed a range of Caribbean-inspired food products, several cookbooks and television show. Ever-focused and incredibly motivated, Levi has always combined his two loves of cooking and music, inspiring his mantra, ‘Put some music in your food!’ As a highly sought after motivational and entrepreneurial keynote speaker, Levi tours the country sharing his inspiring story at conferences, corporate events, schools, prisons and on podcasts – often bringing his iconic guitar with him! In 2024, Levi entered the Big Brother House for the return of Celebrity Big Brother on ITV. Reggae Reggae Sauce and Dragon’s Den For years, Levi made his popular Reggae Reggae Sauce – a delicious mix of jerk and barbecue sauce – out of his Brixton kitchen with the help of his seven children. It sold at various small outlets, and was particularly popular at Notting Hill Carnival – where his ‘Rasta’raunt’ was an annual feature for over 20 years. In 2006, Levi was spotted at the World Food Market by a BBC researcher and was invited to appear on the programme Dragons’ Den. Levi had never heard of the show – but went on to make his pitch, which included a song whilst strumming on his guitar. Levi sufficiently impressed millionaire Dragons Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh. In exchange for a 40% stake in his business, Levi secured a total investment of £50,000. Levi’s success after the show was nothing short of a whirlwind. After landing on the shelves of Sainsbury’s, Reggae Reggae source outsold Heinz Ketchup within six weeks – the chain’s fastest-ever selling product. Peter Jones described it as one of his most successful investments from the show. Levi Roots products have expanded to include ready meals, soft drinks, desserts and more. The brand also has deals with numerous high-profile restaurant chains to use Reggae Reggae Sauce on their menus, including Wetherspoons. For four years from 2015 to 2019, Levi was also a restaurateur having opened The Levi Roots Caribbean Smokehouse in Westfield Stratford City. Television Work and Acting In 2009, Levi had his own four-part series on BBC Two called Caribbean Food Made Easy. In it, Levi travelled around Jamaica and across the UK, showing the British public how to bring sunshine flavours into their kitchens. Levi has also appeared on various other UK TV shows, from live cookery shows such as ITV’s This Morning, James Martin’s Saturday Morning and BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen Live to game shows, alongside other TV stars, Channel 4’s Countdown dictionary corner and ITV’s The Chase: Celebrity Special. In 2018, Levi played the cameo role of Billy Springer in the hugely popular BBC One series Death in Paradise. He has also appeared in Channel 4’s Youngers and the 2011 comedy film Anuvahood. In 2019, Levi narrated the BBC documentary Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes. In 2023 the musical he conceived, South Clash: Death in the Arena had its world premier at Edinburgh Fringe. Most recently Levi featured on the return of Celebrity Big Brother on ITV. In 2019, he was approached by writer-producers Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft about making his life story into a feature film. Public Speaking Levi is an incredibly entertaining and charismatic motivational keynote speaker who is passionate about giving back to the community and inspiring young people in the UK. He has visited hundreds of schools, universities and prisons, sharing his story and encouraging young people from all walks of life to believe in themselves. He is also asked to talk at events during Black History Month. Levi is also a proud long-time ambassador of The Prince’s Trust. Books Levi has written six cookbooks, all of which focus on exciting, colourful and unexpected recipes with a big emphasis on Caribbean flavours and spice: Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae Cookbook, 2008 Caribbean Food Made Easy, 2009 – accompanying the BBC2 series of the same name Levi Roots Food for Friends: 100 Simple Dishes for Every Occasion, 2010 Spice It Up: Fabulocious Recipes to Spice Up Your Life, 2011 Sweet: Irresistible Desserts and Drinks, Cakes and Bakes, 2012 Grill it with Levi: 101 Reggae Recipes for Sunshine and Soul, 2013 In 2011, Levi also published a business book titled You Can Get It If You Really Want: Start Your Business, Transform Your Life, which charts his success and provides inspirational tips on how to get ahead in business. Levi has also featured in various newspaper and magazine cookery pieces, sharing his life experiences and his delicious recipes. Music Levi’s late entry into the culinary field came because of his commitments to music. Levi has toured the world, performing with icons such as James Brown, Maxi Priest, Dennis Brown, Michael Rose and Black Uhuru. He was nominated for a Best Reggae Act MOBO award in 1998 for his Free Your Mind album. Levi performed “Happy Birthday Mr. President” for Nelson Mandela in 1996 on his trip to Brixton. He also used to play football with Bob Marley every Sunday in Battersea Park! Levi’s Red Hot album was launched in 2009 by Sound Box Media. His last record, Rise Above, was released in 2015 and includes the infectious summer single “Jam in the Streets”. Background Levi’s Reggae Reggae Sauce recipe was inspired by his grandmother Miriam, who taught him how to cook as a small boy. Levi was raised by his grandparents in a tiny village in Clarendon, Jamaica. During this time, Levi also discovered his love for music at the church where his grandmother sang. Levi’s parents had moved to Brixton as part of the Windrush generation, and worked hard to bring their children over one by one. Eventually, it was Levi’s turn to leave Jamaica. In London, Levi went to school for the first time and also visited the Notting Hill Carnival, falling in love with the food, music and colours. Little did he know that it would become home to the sauce that would one day make him his fortune!

Why organisations work with Rodney Williams He has built two venture-backed fintech companies from concept to scale, including SoLo Funds, the only Black-led Certified B Corp fintech in the US, with over 1 million loans funded for 1.5 million users. He raised more than $40M for LISNR with clients including Visa, Ticketmaster, Jaguar Land Rover, and Lenovo, giving him operating experience inside the commercial functions of global brands rather than a venture-capital perspective from the outside. He brings a working operator’s view of financial inclusion that does not collapse into advocacy, anchored in his testimony to federal regulators and direct experience designing products for working and middle-class consumers. Named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list five times across nine years, a recurrence that is unusual and signals durable founder relevance rather than one moment of attention. Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, with the framing capacity that programme selects for, which translates to a keynote that argues rather than just narrates. Biography highlights Co-founder and President, SoLo Funds, the largest community finance platform in the US, with over 1 million loans funded since 2018. Founder and Chair, LISNR, an ultrasonic data-transmission company backed by Visa with over $40M raised. Former Brand Manager, Procter & Gamble, leading digital strategy and ecommerce for Pampers North America. 2019 Henry Crown Fellow, Aspen Global Leadership Network. CNBC Disruptor 50 honouree in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Cannes Gold Lion (2015); Ad Age 40 Under 40 (2012); Black Enterprise Tech Entrepreneur of the Year (2016); Ebony Power 100 (2018). Biography SoLo Funds has facilitated more than a million loans to working and lower-middle-class Americans since 2018, and it did so by treating its users as both borrowers and lenders to each other. The business depends on a functioning peer community, not on a marketing community. That distinction sounds semantic until a leadership team tries to operationalise it. Rodney Williams co-founded SoLo Funds after building LISNR, an ultrasonic data-transmission platform he scaled to over $40M in funding with commercial deployments at Visa, Ticketmaster, Jaguar Land Rover, and Lenovo. Before LISNR, he ran digital and ecommerce strategy for Pampers North America at Procter & Gamble, which is where he learned how large consumer organisations actually think about customer acquisition, retention, and brand economics. That sequence matters. He has built community-led commercial models inside a $300B consumer goods business, inside a B2B technology company selling to global brands, and inside a fintech that has become the only Black-led Certified B Corp in its category. The arguments he makes about community as a commercial mechanism are operating arguments, not theoretical ones. He has been named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list five times across nine years, including 2023, and is a 2019 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. His most pointed contribution for a corporate audience is on what financial inclusion actually requires from product, regulatory, and capital partners once advocacy ends and operations begin. SoLo’s growth has placed him in direct conversation with federal regulators, congressional offices, and tier-one investors including Serena Ventures, ACME Capital, and Endeavor Catalyst, and he speaks from inside those conversations rather than from a panel about them. Key speaking topics Community as commercial operating model Founding and scaling venture-backed fintech Financial inclusion and the underserved consumer Brand building inside large consumer organisations Inclusive capital raising and founder ecosystems Disruptive product strategy in regulated markets Black entrepreneurship and category creation Ideal for CMOs, brand leaders, and growth executives at consumer-facing organisations rethinking community as a commercial channel. Boards and leadership teams of banks, fintechs, and financial services firms reassessing the underserved-consumer opportunity. Founders, venture investors, and corporate venture units focused on inclusive innovation and scale-up discipline. DEI, ESG, and impact leaders looking for a founder-operator voice on inclusive commercial outcomes rather than advocacy framing. Audience outcomes A concrete view of how community functions as an operating mechanism inside a commercial business, not as a brand layer. A founder-operator perspective on building, financing, and defending an inclusive product inside a regulated category. Arguments and case material on why the working and lower-middle-class consumer is structurally underserved, and what product responses actually move the market. Direct experience and pattern recognition from raising capital as a Black founder, applicable to inclusive investment and founder-development programmes.

Meet Damian Pelliccione As Hollywood’s only openly Non-Binary CEO, Damian Pelliccione (they/them) was named one of Business Insider’s “Top 16 Power Player Execs in AD Video Streaming Space” and is one of 4x intersectional diverse co-founders of Revry, the 1st global Queer (LGBTQ+) (Certified Minority Owned and Operated) streaming media company. Revry is available worldwide on over 60+, Connected TV (CTV), Free-Ad-Supported-TV (FAST), Over-The-Top (OTT), desktop, mobile devices, smart TV, and major ad-supported networks. Revry was named ‘App of the Day’ by Apple IOS and Damian’s story was featured globally on Apple IOS in the ‘Developer Spotlight‘. Damian was named one of Goldman Sachs ‘Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs‘, was featured on the ‘Out 100’ list, and is a proud recipient of the West Hollywood Rainbow Key Award. Damian also recently won a GLAAD Media Award for an original series Damian created “Drag Latina”. Damian and their co-founders are all graduates of Goldman Sachs Black and Latinx 2020 accelerator program. Damian has acted as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago and has lectured at over 20 universities and colleges across the globe including the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Film School, and BAU University Istanbul Turkey amongst others. Damian is also a proud member of StartOut, Out in Tech, and Trans Tech Organizations. Damian also serves as a board member of The Trans-Chorus of Los Angeles.

Meet Cheryl Campos Cheryl Campos is a serial maverick, aligning her passions to achieve success across multiple arenas. As the CEO of a leading financial nonprofit and a professional model and actress, Cheryl possesses a unique and powerful dual perspective that bridges the analytical and creative worlds. Her dynamic career embodies innovation, resilience, and the limitless potential of following one’s diverse passions. She is the cofounder and CEO of LaFamilia Foundation, a 501c3 closing the capital gap for Latine founders and funders through its communities VCFamilia & FounderFamilia. Through VCFamilia, the largest global community of Latine VCs, it has facilitated over $10M of LP funding and also helped pioneer the first operational capital grant program for Latine emerging fund managers. Through FounderFamilia with 500+ Latine venture backed founders, it has funneled $1M to promising startups with a renowned national pitch competition and partnerships. LFF is backed by leading corporations such as J.P. Morgan, AWS, Comcast, Gunderson and more. She is signed to top international agencies in NY and LA, working with fashion brands such as Tom Ford, Louboutin, Macys, Nordstrom, as well as appearing in commercials for major companies like Chevrolet and Amazon. She is now a signed actress (SAG-Eligible), featuring in the trailer for Mrs. Fletcher (HBO) and has honed her craft at the prestigious Stella Adler Studio in Hollywood. Previously, she was the Head of Venture Growth and Partnerships at Republic, an investment platform for founders to raise capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors. She joined as employee #10 in 2018 and was instrumental in its growth to unicorn status ($1BN valuation). In other direct investing roles, she is a scout for Lightspeed and an investment partner at The Community Fund, writing checks to 20+ companies in community centric startups, particularly healthcare. She started her career in Investment Banking at Barclays, working in the Financial Institutions Group and Structured Finance. She holds a BA in Economics with honors from Harvard University and graduated with her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2024.