The 2026 Lineup

Confirmed Speakers

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Multi-Family Real Estate Developer · CAP, CAM · Internship Program Founder

David Byczek

David Byczek is a leader in multi-family apartment development with more than 33 years of experience as a real estate developer. He holds accreditations from the National Apartment Association (CAP and CAM), has spoken and appeared on numerous podcasts on the apartment industry, and has testified before the Wisconsin State Legislature on the issues driving the state's housing shortage. Over his career, David has amassed holdings of more than 3,000 apartment units and multiple commercial properties. Throughout that work, he has become passionate about engaging high school students drawn to the trades behind multi-family development and college students who share his passion for real estate development. Through his company, David built an internship program that has launched successful careers for talented tradespeople and real estate professionals alike — several of whom have gone on to start their own businesses, including real estate capital investment firms. David is proud to count many of his former interns as business partners today. Working with Wisconsin's youth in that program shaped a philosophy he now carries into every conversation: that as adults, we need to engage more with our youth to help them discover their passions in life, and to help them develop that passion into a successful life of accomplishments that is meaningful to them.

President & CEO — Secure Resources Unlimited · Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Brian Dorow

"Look at Me: The Free Cheese President"

Brian Dorow is a security executive, entrepreneur, and former senior national security official whose career spans local policing to the highest levels of the federal government. He began his career as a police supervisor with the City of Waukesha Police Department, spending a decade on the front lines of community law enforcement. He then spent nearly fourteen years as Dean of Criminal Justice, Homeland Security, and Counter Terrorism at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), shaping the next generation of public-safety professionals. In 2018, Brian was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, advising on national security and the full spectrum of threats and hazards impacting the homeland. He later served as Chief Homeland Security Enterprise Advisor at The MITRE Corporation, helping tackle some of the nation's biggest challenges in defense, cybersecurity, healthcare, and transportation through public-private partnerships and federally funded R&D centers. Today, Brian is the President and CEO of Secure Resources Unlimited (SRU), a comprehensive security company he founded in 2015. His TEDx talk, Look at Me: The Free Cheese President, explores how humble beginnings, hard work, and an unwillingness to accept limitations transformed an underdog into a successful entrepreneur, business leader, and national and homeland security advisor.

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MMT, MT-BC · Founder & CEO — Healing Harmonies · Board-Certified Music Therapist

Erica Flores

"Purpose Over Performance: When a Music Prescription is Needed"

Erica Flores, MMT, MT-BC, is a board-certified music therapist, healthcare advocate, and thought-leader with over 20 years of clinical experience. In 2011, she established Healing Harmonies, where she serves as Founder & CEO, leading a multidisciplinary team of board-certified music therapists and licensed art therapists based out of their flagship clinic in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Her practice delivers lifespan care—from 18 months through end-of-life—across Milwaukee, Waukesha, and surrounding counties. Healing Harmonies supports individuals with neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions (including autism, Parkinson's, and stroke), mental health and substance use challenges, memory care needs, and hospice care. Erica's "North Star" is to transform lives by bringing exceptional music and art therapy to the community while raising public awareness to increase service accessibility. A past President of the Wisconsin Chapter for Music Therapy and current Task Force Co-Chair advocating for state licensure, she is equally passionate about training the next generation of clinicians and building a resilient, burnout-resistant practice culture. In her TEDx talk, she reveals how music functions as a clinical prescription and illuminates when creative arts therapies are needed most. Outside of her clinical leadership and legislative advocacy, Erica lives in a music-filled home with her husband and their 16-year-old son. In her spare time, you'll find her playing music with her family, catching live concerts, playing card games, and cheering on the Packers and Brewers.

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Founder — 7 Stage Advisors · Business Growth Authority

Carl Gould

"The Power of Obnoxious"

Carl Gould is a worldwide leading authority on business and entrepreneurship, a keynote speaker, and best-selling author. He built three multi-million dollar businesses by age 40, and his company, 7 Stage Advisors, has mentored the launch of more than five thousand businesses — including work with Allstate, American Idol, USA Olympic Track, IBM, McGraw-Hill, and the US Army. He created the farthest-reaching business mentoring organization in the world, with methodologies practiced in 35 countries, and has trained, certified, or accredited over 7,000 business coaches and mentors since 2002. Carl co-authored Blueprint for Success with Stephen R. Covey and Ken Blanchard, and his best-selling books The 7 Stages of Small Business Success and Biz Dev Done Right lay out his formula for HyperGrowth. A four-time Entrepreneur of the Year and a fixture across 100+ news and media appearances, he brings original, battle-tested content and high-energy delivery to every stage.

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Founder & CEO — JH Leadership & Strategy · Executive Coach · Best-Selling Author

John Holcombe

"Humanizing the Leadership Experience Creates Value Faster"

John Holcombe is an innovation and commercialization expert, executive coach, and the Founder and CEO of JH Leadership & Strategy, Inc. With more than 30 years of experience across biotech, pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, and high-growth technology sectors, he helps leaders turn complex ideas into measurable business value. As a speaker, John is known for delivering clear, practical frameworks that move organizations from insight to impact. Drawing on his Innovation-to-Market Canvas™ and real-world experience, he shows leaders how to identify meaningful customer needs, uncover market opportunities, and translate ideas into scalable, profitable outcomes — reducing risk, improving decision-making, and aligning cross-functional teams to accelerate commercialization. His best-selling book, Creating Value Faster, captures the core frameworks behind his work with leaders, offering a structured approach to turning customer insight into real business value. Audiences leave with a more disciplined approach to innovation and a clearer path to turning ideas into sustainable growth.

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Board Certified Chiropractic Internist & Nutritionist · Author, Positively Altered

Dr. Cindy M. Howard

"Your Gut is Your Garden—Not Your Battlefield"

Dr. Cindy Howard is a dynamic leader in the wellness and happiness space, dedicated to redefining how we approach health, happiness, and resilience in both personal and professional settings. She is the author of the award-winning book Positively Altered: Finding Happiness at the Bottom of a Chemo Bag, where she shares her transformative journey of overcoming life's greatest challenges with grace, humor, and an unwavering commitment to personal growth. A Board Certified Chiropractic Internist and Nutritionist in private practice, she owns Innovative Health & Wellness Center and serves on boards including Inguardia Health and Fullscript. A long-standing American Chiropractic Association delegate for Illinois, she was named Illinois ACA Chiropractor of the Year in 2020 and received the Flynn-Lynch award in 2015 for outstanding service. As founder of the Positively Altered Project, she unites thought leaders, practitioners, and change-makers to reimagine wellness at work and in life, delivering science-backed strategies that blend mental, physical, and emotional health. Known for her warmth, authenticity, and quirky sense of humor, Dr. Cindy's vision is to help the world become "positively altered" — one connection, conversation, and community at a time.

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Brand Strategist · Founder — Brand Strong Marketing · Host, Turbo Branding Show

Sue Kirchner

"Why Branding is Too Important for the Marketing Department"

Sue Kirchner is a brand strategist, Founder of Brand Strong Marketing, and host of the Turbo Branding Show. For over 25 years, she has guided CEOs and Founders through turbulent market transitions using her proven Brand Strong Methodology—helping companies turn their core identity and brand positioning into a magnet for the right customers and top talent. Through her consulting, coaching, and podcast, Sue empowers Founders and CEOs to ignite sustainable growth by making the brand their strongest sales lever. In her talk, she reveals that the secret to breaking past the $1 million ceiling isn't hiring more salespeople or running more ads — it's treating brand as the core operating system of the C-suite, a business discipline rather than a marketing task, and the single most critical commitment a leader can make to build a company that grows and outlasts its creator.

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Keynote Speaker · Leadership Coach · Corporate Culture Consultant

Megan Kuiper

"From Burnout to Spark: The Leadership Shift That Starts With You"

Megan Kuiper is a keynote speaker, leadership coach, and corporate culture consultant who helps professionals and organizations build energized leaders and thriving teams. With more than 21 years of corporate leadership experience, including serving as a Director at Target Corporation, she brings both real-world credibility and a deeply human approach to leadership development. After experiencing burnout at the height of her corporate career, Megan redefined her path and now helps high-achieving professionals amplify both their lives and their leadership — reconnecting to fulfillment, purpose, and intention while strengthening how they show up at work. A core part of her work is helping leaders elevate and protect their energy, one of the most overlooked drivers of performance and culture, and empowering them to stop being "the glue" for everything so their teams take ownership, communicate effectively, and grow together. Through keynotes, consulting, and coaching, she helps leaders build intentional development routines, improve communication, and create cultures where feedback is frequent, human, and effective. Her signature keynote blends storytelling, strategy, and her Human-Centered Leadership framework to help leaders drive meaningful, sustainable results. Megan is a wife to her husband, Nate, of 21 years and a proud boy mom to three — roles that continually ground her perspective on energy, presence, and what sustainable leadership really requires.

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Founder — Small Business Owners Community · Host, Businessing with Pat Miller

Pat Miller

"AI Is a Lie Detector"

Pat Miller is the founder of the Small Business Owners Community. He spent 22 years behind a microphone in professional broadcasting before turning that voice toward small business owners. Today, he hosts Businessing with Pat Miller, his daily live show where he walks owners through the news, the noise, and what actually matters to their bottom line. He speaks and trains on AI showing small business owners how to use Claude as a team member instead of a chatbot, so they can hand off busy work and get their time back. And, he hosts live events and meet ups for entrepreneurs to live out his mission: "It's Your Dream, Don't Grow It Alone®."

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CEO — Wangard Partners · Former Deputy Secretary, Wisconsin DNR

Matt Moroney

"Four Choices that Impact Your Impact"

Matt Moroney is the CEO of Wangard Partners, bringing a wealth of experience and leadership from both the public and private sectors. His real estate career began in the homebuilding industry, where he served as Director of Government Relations and then Executive Director of the Metropolitan Builders Association, leading a group of independent homebuilders to work collaboratively toward industry-wide goals. He was later asked by Gov. Scott Walker to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, then as Deputy Chief of Staff, and ultimately as Strategic Economic Initiatives Director for the State of Wisconsin. Matt's contributions to Wisconsin's business landscape have earned him wide recognition, including the Mike Mooney Award from the Wisconsin Chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, a place among the Milwaukee Business Journal's Top 55 Business Executives, and a ranking in BizTimes' top 275 Executives in Wisconsin. Beyond economic development, he is deeply involved in the community, serving on the boards of Citizens Bank, Milwaukee BID District 21 (Downtown), CREDA, and the Waukesha Business Alliance, where he currently chairs the Board of Directors, and he lends his expertise to the CREDA Public Policy Committee. His talk argues that impact isn't usually determined by talent or luck — it's determined by the choices we make every day in how we treat people, how we work, how we use our gifts, and how we respond when life changes our plans.

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Educator · Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher · Award-Winning Author

Jamie Lynn Tatera

"What Kids Learn When We Mess Up"

Jamie Lynn Tatera is an educator, certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher, and creator of a parent-child self-compassion program studied by researchers at UW-Madison, UNC Chapel Hill, and UC Irvine. She is also the author of the award-winning two-volume Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids. Both grew out of her own experience discovering that self-compassion could heal her family, and her wish for others to have the same. A mom of two, Jamie Lynn has taught in Milwaukee Public Schools classrooms for fourteen years. She has also taught in the School of Education at UW-Milwaukee, and writes for Greater Good Magazine, published by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. Her program has been endorsed by the founders of the Mindful Self-Compassion program, Kristin Neff at UT Austin and Christopher Germer at Harvard Medical School. She is on a mission to help children and caregivers stop trying to get it all right, and start lovingly holding the mess.

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Music Educator · NOAA Teacher at Sea · Fulbright & National Geographic Fellow

Lisa Werner

"The Sound of Action: How Music Can Change the World"

Lisa Werner is a music educator whose commitment goes beyond the conventional, constantly seeking inventive ways to intertwine music with STEM education, such as orchestrating students' experiments on sound and music during a Space for Teachers zero gravity flight while playing her trombone, making connections between music, bathymetry, and autonomous underwater vehicles on a NOAA Teacher at Sea mission to the Pacific Ocean, traveling on a National Geographic/Lindblad Expedition Grosvenor Fellowship to connect climate change data to music in Antarctica, or using STEAM education to transcend borders in a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship in Senegal. Lisa's goal is to encourage students to dream big and leverage the skills acquired in music class to achieve their ambitions. When not inspiring students to love music, she plays in jazz bands, musical pit ensembles, and travels around the world with her husband and two daughters.

Award-Winning Author · E-Commerce Growth Executive · Speaker

Dom LeRoux

"We Have Opportunity Backwards"

Dom LeRoux is an award-winning author, e-commerce growth executive, and speaker who has held leadership roles and helped scale eight- and nine-figure businesses. He has also served as a Panel Advisor to USF's Muma College of Business. For Dom, "create value first" is more than a philosophy—it is the operating system behind how he builds businesses and relationships: give people a reason to trust you before asking for anything in return. That same principle is at the heart of his book, The Corporate Gifting Playbook, which explores how thoughtful giving can create genuine value, deepen trust, and open doors with customers, clients, and prospects before a transaction begins. His TEDx talk, We Have Opportunity Backwards, takes that philosophy beyond e-commerce and corporate gifting. Dom challenges the conventional belief that opportunity must come first and proposes a different order: create value before there is anything to gain, allow trust and relationships to grow, and discover what opportunities can emerge as a result.

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Professional Speaker · Executive Coach · Author, The Leadership Contradiction

Traycee Mayer

"Love Rocks- lessons of a lifetime connection of rocks and humanity"

Traycee Mayer is a professional speaker, leadership expert, executive coach, and author who helps leaders harness the power of human connection to drive meaningful success. Her core philosophy: people don't need to be treated equally—they need to be treated as the unique individuals they are to truly thrive. She has a long-standing commitment to sobriety and authentic living while modeling the courage, compassion, and love she teaches. Her keynote, The Heart of Gold Framework: Restoring Humanity to Leadership, draws from decades of successful people and team development and the profoundly positive bottom-line results that followed. With over 40 years of experience in hospitality leadership and human resources, Traycee has led teams of hundreds and developed dozens of successful leaders. She is the author of the award-winning book The Leadership Contradiction: Choosing a Path of Love and Kindness and creator of The Leader Paths Oracle Deck, born from her years traveling the world hiking, mountain biking, and scuba diving. A Certified Executive Coach at UC Berkeley's Executive Coaching Institute, Edgewalkers International, and Archetypes of Change, Traycee draws from both professional triumphs and personal challenges to offer audiences practical tools for leadership presence, growth mindsets, and transformative change.

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Presiding Judge — Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II

Hon. Maria S. Lazar

Judge Maria S. Lazar serves as Presiding Judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II, a role she assumed in August 2026. She was appointed to the Court of Appeals in August 2022 after serving as a Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge from 2015 to 2022, where her rotations included Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Division, Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division, Drug Treatment Court Judge, and the Civil Division. Prior to the bench, she was a Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General in the Special Litigation and Appeals unit and spent 20 years in private practice. Judge Lazar has presented at numerous Judicial Education Seminars and before bar associations and legal entities on litigation, redistricting, contracting principles, and bankruptcy. She served as President of the Milwaukee Bar Association, sat on its Board of Directors, and served two terms on the State of Wisconsin's Board of Governors. She earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Mount Mary College and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She married her high-school sweetheart and has two adult children.