Sean Covey
Sean Covey brings executive experience in the field of innovation and product development. As a New York Times bestselling author, Sean has sold millions of books for young adults.
Sean is the Executive Vice President of Global Solutions and Partnerships for FranklinCovey and has led the development of many FranklinCovey’s organizational offerings, including: FOCUS, Leadership, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, The Leader in Me, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Sean oversees all of FranklinCovey’s international partnerships, which cover more than 140 countries.
Sean is also FranklinCovey’s Education Practice Leader and is devoted to transforming education around the globe through bringing leadership principles and skills to students, educators, administrators, and parents alike. He is a New York Times bestselling author and has written several books, including The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, which has been translated into 20 languages and sold over 4 million copies worldwide.
He is a seasoned speaker to kids, teens, and adults and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
As one of the most decorated female athletes of all-time, Jackie dominated the track and field circuit for 16 years and won three gold, one silver and two bronze medals spanning four Olympic Games during her illustrious career. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, she won the silver medal in the heptathlon. Four years later, at the 1988 Games in Seoul, Korea, Jackie struck gold in both her signature events – the heptathlon (world record) and long jump. She followed that up at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain by winning gold in the heptathlon and bronze in the long jump. In her final Olympic appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Games, she won the bronze medal in the long jump. In addition, she won a total of four gold medals (two in the heptathlon and two in the long jump) at three different World Championships and finished first in the long jump at the 1987 Pan American Games.
Sports Illustrated for Women magazine named Jackie the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century. On three different occasions (1994, 1987 and 1986), she was honored by Track & Field News as the World Athlete of the Year. She also was named as the top American Athlete five times (1994, 1992, 1991, 1987 and 1986).
Jackie received the Jesse Owens Award in both 1986 and 1987. She still holds the world record in the heptathlon (7291 points) and is the American record holder in both the heptathlon and long jump (24-7). On December 3, 2004, she was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame. The March 2002 issue of Ebony included her on its list of the Top 10 Greatest African-American Women Athletes.
Jackie attended college at UCLA and starred in both track & field and women’s basketball from 1980-to-1985. A four-year starter on the Bruins’ basketball team, she is still listed among the school’s career leader in scoring average, rebounding and assists.
The inaugural recipient of the Humanitarian Athlete of the Year, Joyner-Kersee is known worldwide for her interest in aiding others. She has helped to build the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center Foundation in her hometown of East St. Louis, Ill., that has raised more than $12 million.
In 2007, she along with several notable athletes, founded Athletes for Hope, a charitable organization of professional athletes who get involved in charitable causes and inspire millions of non-athletes to volunteer and support their community.
In 2010, Joyner Kersee was honored with an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award given each year by the American National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to recognize six distinguished former student-athletes on their 25th anniversary as college graduates. Most recently, Jackie was selected as the recipient of the 2011 Dick Enberg Award. The Award is presented annually to a person whose actions and commitment have furthered the meaning and reach of the Academic All-America® Teams Program and/or the student-athlete while promoting the values of education and academics.
Jackie has recently embarked upon a nationwide effort to enhance the comprehensive health of our nation’s communities through the promotion of healthy lifestyles. She has been asked by the United States Department of Agriculture to promote My Plate, the replacement for the food pyramid. She has also joined forces with the 77-year-old Farm Foundation to address the availability of healthy foods in challenged communities throughout the United States. In addition, she just completed a series of internal Public Service Announcements to promote the use of the agency’s online products.
Jackie is married to famed track and field coach Bobby Kersee.
Sal Khan
Salman “Sal” Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit with a mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
Khan Academy started as a passion project. Sal’s cousin was struggling with math. He tutored her remotely and posted educational videos on YouTube. So many people watched the videos that eventually Sal pursued Khan Academy full-time. Nearly ten years later, more than 60 million registered users access Khan Academy in dozens of languages across 190 countries.
Sal is a former Teacher of the Year at Princeton Review, where he taught physics, biology and chemistry to MCAT students. Sal had a fellowship at MIT to research educational software.
Sal has been profiled by 60 Minutes, featured on the cover of Forbes, and recognized as one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.” In his book, The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined, Sal outlines his vision for the future of education. Sal holds three degrees from MIT and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
Today Khan Academy’s free online learning resources cover preschool through early college education, including K-12 math, grammar, biology, chemistry, physics, economics, finance, history and SAT prep. Khan Academy also provides teachers with tools and data so they can help their students develop the skills, habits, and mindsets they need to succeed in school and beyond. And it’s all free, for everyone, forever.
Daniel Pink
Daniel H. Pink is the author of six provocative books — including his newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, to be published in January 2018. His other books include the long-running New York Times bestseller A Whole New Mind and the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into 35 languages.
Pink was host and co-executive producer of “Crowd Control,” a television series about human behavior on the National Geographic Channel. He also appears frequently on NPR’s Hidden Brain, the PBS NewsHour, and other TV and radio networks in the US and abroad.
He has been a contributing editor at Fast Company and Wired as well as a business columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. His articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. In 2007, he was a Japan Society Media fellow in Tokyo, where he studied the country’s massive comic industry.
In 2015, London-based Thinkers 50 named him, alongside Michael Porter and Clayton Christensen, as one of the top 10 business thinkers in the world. Pink’s TED Talk on the science of motivation is one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time, with more than 19 million views. His RSA Animate video about the ideas in his book, Drive, has collected more than 14 million views.
He currently serves on the advisory boards of RiseSmart, Betterment Institutional, Heleo, and Hubspot.
Before venturing out on his own 20 years ago, Dan worked in several positions in politics and government, including serving from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore.