Arthur C. Brooks | Harvard Professor, Leadership and Happiness

Arthur C. Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. He is also a columnist at The Atlantic, where he writes the popular “How to Build a Life” column.

Mr. Brooks is the author of 13 books, including the 2023 #1 New York Times bestseller Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with co-author Oprah Winfrey, and the 2022 #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. He speaks to audiences all around the world about human happiness and works to raise well-being within private companies, universities, public agencies, and community organizations.

Kevin McCarthy | 55th Speaker of the House

Described as a man who exudes “true American grit,” Kevin McCarthy's political journey is the quintessential American story. After starting a small business at the age of 21, Mr. McCarthy went back to college to earn his bachelor and master degrees in business. He was rejected for an internship to the congressional seat he later held for seventeen years. Prior to being elected to Congress, Mr. McCarthy served in the California State Legislature, where he became the fastest rising Minority Leader in the history of the California State Assembly.

Mr. McCarthy won the Speakership after a historic 15 ballots, and went on to secure $2 trillion in deficit reduction, all while protecting the full faith and credit of the United States, keeping our government open, and making sure our troops were paid. He also refocused Congress on America’s long-term challenges by creating the first-ever Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Throughout his career, Mr. McCarthy fought for a more effective, efficient, and accountable federal government. He also personally recruited and actively supported commonsense candidates for office who have helped reshape the Republican Party – several of whom have become Senators, Governors, and cabinet secretaries. Overall, under his leadership, dozens of new Republican women, minorities, and veterans have been elected to Congress.

In Congress, he held nearly every elected leadership position in the House Republican conference and served under three Presidents, during two economic crises, and through consistent political upheaval while always maintaining his approach to governing as a Happy Warrior.

Jennifer Granholm | U.S. Secretary of Energy, Former Governor of Michigan (2003–2011)

Jennifer Granholm is an American lawyer, educator, author, and politician who served most recently as the 16^th United States Secretary of Energy, and previously as the two-term governor of Michigan. As governor, she spearheaded Michigan’s economic recovery after the Great Recession by diversifying the state’s economy to focus on clean energy and revitalizing the auto industry to build electric vehicles.

As Secretary of Energy (2021-2025), Ms. Granholm restructured the U.S. Department of Energy to focus on research and development of advanced clean energy solutions and, importantly, deployment of zero-carbon technologies.   She oversaw $200 billion of U.S. DOE investments into companies and projects to accelerate the clean energy transition. During her tenure as Secretary, thanks to the policies and laws that she helped to shape, the country saw record deployment of clean energy — adding the equivalent of 30 Hoover Dams of zero-carbon energy to the nation’s electricity grid in 2024, more than twice as much solar power deployed as ever before. Due to incentives to manufacture in America, businesses announced almost 1,000 factories were coming or expanding in the U.S. to build clean energy products — solar panels, EVs, batteries, small nuclear reactors, clean hydrogen, geothermal, and more. Thanks to DOE’s work, the nation’s transmission grid is seeing an 11X expansion of new transmission miles.

During her tenure as Secretary, DOE with its 110,000 employees was ranked among the Top 10 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. Ms. Granholm was named in 2024 to the Time 100 Most Influential People list, and Forbes’ list of Top Climate Leaders.

Ms. Granholm taught law and public policy at UC Berkeley from 2011-2020, specializing in clean energy and public leadership. A former Attorney General of Michigan (1998-2002) and an honors graduate of Harvard Law School (1987), she is the author of A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future, has penned scores of articles and opinion pieces on clean energy, and continues to play a leading role in shaping America’s energy future.

Michael Sandel | Harvard University, Political Philosopher

Harvard political philosopher and bestselling author Michael Sandel has been described as a “philosopher with the global profile of a rock star” (BBC HARDtalk). Renowned for leading lively Socratic debates on the most vexing moral and civic questions of our time, Mr. Sandel shows how we can think our way through the hard choices we face in politics, business, and our everyday lives.

Mr. Sandel’s books—on justice, democracy, ethics, technology, and markets—have been translated into more than 30 languages. They include Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?; What Money Can’t Buy, and The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?, which seeks a way beyond our polarized politics. A new edition of his classic book Democracy’s Discontent has been described as “essential--and ultimately hopeful--reading for all those who wonder if our democratic experiment will survive in the twenty-first century.”

Mr. Sandel’s legendary course “Justice,” one of the most popular in Harvard’s history, is freely available online and has been viewed by tens of millions. His BBC series The Global Philosopher engages participants from around the world in discussing the ethical issues lying behind the headlines. In this and other television, radio, and online programs, Mr. Sandel explores tech ethics, robots and AI, markets and morals, climate change, free speech, and other topical issues.

Mr. Sandel’s renowned interactive public lectures on the big civic questions of the day show how reasoned debate, leavened with humor and mutual respect, can produce dialogue across our differences.

A “master of life’s big questions” (Guardian), Mr. Sandel’s live events have packed St. Paul’s Cathedral (London), the Sydney Opera House (Australia), the Delacorte Theater in New York’s Central Park, and an outdoor stadium in Seoul (S. Korea), where 14,000 came to hear him speak.

Rob Gronkowski | Four-Time Super Bowl Champion

After a final two seasons as a tight end with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rob Gronkowski retired from the NFL in 2022. Mr. Gronkowski is a four- time Super Bowl champion, a five-time Pro Bowl selection, and a four-time First Team All-Pro selection. He previously played nine seasons for the New England Patriots. “Gronk,” as he’s known to his legion of fans, is widely admired for his fun-loving spirit and ability to triumph over significant injuries in his player career, earning him the 2014 Comeback Player of the Year award at the 2015 ESPY Awards. Having been selected for the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, it is clear by both sports analysts, peers, and players alike that he is one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the game.

His larger-than-life personality off the field has made him a crowd favorite well beyond the world of sports. He’s scored endorsements with Cheerios and Monster Energy and has been featured in television ads for Nike and Tide. He’s also made appearances in film and television, including Entourage, Family Guy, and the hit movie The Clapper. In January 2018, Showtime Network released Unsportsmanlike Comedy with Rob Gronkowski, cementing his status as a force on and off the field. Most recently, Mr. Gronkowski starred in the movie Boss Level alongside Mel Gibson, and unveiled himself as the White Tiger in the hit show The Masked Singer. Mr. Gronkowski is also one of the hosts on the hit CBS competition series Game On! During his year-long retirement from the NFL, he joined Fox Sports as an analyst for their NFL on Fox Sunday Pregame Show, where his energy and charisma were on full display.

Mr. Gronkowski started “The Gronk Nation Youth Foundation,” which is dedicated to inspiring youth to reach their maximum potential through sports, education, community, and fitness. His sole focus on this endeavor is to help kids stay actively involved in school and sports and provide them with the tools needed to help them follow their dreams. Gronk Nation provides grants to sports programs, and alongside his brothers, provide appearances at events with selected nonprofit organizations.

Darren J. Robbins | Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP

Darren J. Robbins is a founding partner of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Over the last two decades, Mr. Robbins has served as lead counsel in more than 100 securities class actions and has recovered billions of dollars for investors.

Mr. Robbins served as lead counsel in In re Am. Realty Cap. Props., Inc. Litig., a securities class action arising out of improper accounting practices, recovering more than $1 billion for class members. The American Realty settlement represents the largest recovery as a percentage of damages of any major class action brought pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and resolved prior to trial. The $1+ billion settlement included the largest personal contributions ($237.5 million) ever made by individual defendants to a securities class action settlement.

Mr. Robbins also led Robbins Geller’s prosecution of wrongdoing related to the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) prior to the global financial crisis, including an RMBS securities class action against Goldman Sachs that yielded a $272 million recovery for investors. Mr. Robbins served as co-lead counsel in connection with a $627 million recovery for investors in In re Wachovia Preferred Securities & Bond/Notes Litig., one of the largest securities class action settlements ever involving claims brought solely under the Securities Act of 1933.

One of the hallmarks of Mr. Robbins’ practice has been his focus on corporate governance reform. In UnitedHealth, a securities fraud class action arising out of an options backdating scandal, Mr. Robbins represented lead plaintiff CalPERS and obtained the cancellation of more than 3.6 million stock options held by the company’s former CEO and secured a record $925 million cash recovery for shareholders. He also negotiated sweeping corporate governance reforms, including the election of a shareholder-nominated director to the company’s board of directors, a mandatory holding period for shares acquired via option exercise, and compensation reforms that tied executive pay to performance. Recently, Mr. Robbins led a shareholder derivative action brought by several pension funds on behalf of Community Health Systems, Inc. that yielded a $60 million payment to Community Health as well as corporate governance reforms that included two shareholder-nominated directors, the creation and appointment of a Healthcare Law Compliance Coordinator, the implementation of an executive compensation clawback in the event of a restatement, the establishment of an insider trading controls committee, as well as the adoption of a political expenditure disclosure policy.

Mr. Robbins has been recognized as one of the nation’s top securities litigators by numerous organizations and publications, including The American Lawyer, which commended him for helping “set the pace for [his] peers,” and Chambers USA, which called him “a prominent figure in the field of securities litigation” and “one of the leaders of the plaintiff Bar.” Mr. Robbins was also recognized as a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer for his work in In re Valeant Pharms. Int’l, Inc. Sec. Litig. Mr. Robbins was awarded California Lawyer of the Year by the Daily Journal for 2022, and Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers® for 2023 and 2025.

Richard A. Bennett | President & Chief Executive Officer, ValueEdge Advisors LLC

Richard A. Bennett is President and CEO of ValueEdge Advisors, a firm he founded in summer 2014 to help institutional investors engage with their portfolio companies. From 2006 he was CEO and then Chairman of GMI Ratings and its predecessor, The Corporate Library, a globally recognized investment research firm specializing in corporate governance and ESG with offices in London, New York, San Diego, and Portland, Maine. In August 2014, GMI Ratings was sold to MSCI.

He worked as Director of Corporate Governance for LENS, an institutional activist fund, from 1997 to 2002. He served from 2004 to 2016 as a non-executive director of Trucost, Plc, a U.K.- based firm offering products and services that allow companies, governments, and fund managers to better understand their environmental performance. From 2009 to 2014, he served on the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), and currently serves on the ICGN Nominating Committee. He is an independent director of Biddeford Internet Corporation d/b/a GWI (an ISP and telecom business), Atlantic Trust (Maine) (a fiduciary trust company), and Quoddy Inc. (a footwear brand enterprise).

Mr. Bennett has an extensive background in politics and government service as well as a wide range of private sector experience. A former president of the Maine State Senate, Mr. Bennett served four terms in the Maine Senate and two terms in the state's House of Representatives. From 2013 to 2017, he was Chairman of the Maine Republican Party and a member of the Republican National Committee. In 2014, he volunteered as a member of the MainePERS ESG Integration Task Force.

Directorship magazine has recognized Mr. Bennett six times in its annual list of the 100 "most influential people in corporate governance and the boardroom." In December 2010, he was named by Global Proxy Watch as one of the "10 people around the world who had the most impact on corporate governance in the previous year."

Mr. Bennett was a member of the board of trustees of Hebron Academy from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships from 2005 to 2009. He graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1986 and received his M.B.A. from the University of Southern Maine in 2000.