Bert Jacobs

Optimism Can Take You Anywhere
Chief Executive Optimist, Bert Jacobs, of Life is good®, focuses his energy on where the brand is going next. He has defined branding as "knowing who you are and acting like it" and ensures that every aspect of the business and all business decisions made by company leaders are driven by clarity around the brand and its values. Innovative initiatives, such as the national expansion of Life is Good® festivals and the company's Genuine Neighborhood Shoppes program keep the Life is Good brand fresh and growing. Jacobs is a much sought-after speaker whose lessons on branding are applicable to organizations of all sizes.

David Walker

I.O.U.S.A.: America on the Brink of Financial Crisis
As the most recent Comptroller General of the United States and the new CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, David Walker has traveled the country on a "Fiscal Wake-up Tour." His tour is chronicled in the critically-acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A. , released in the summer 2008. Walker combines a realistic analysis of the financial crisis facing America with an optimistic faith in our country's ability to overcome this enormous challenge if "We the People" wake up and do our part.

Federal entitlement programs, broken health care and education systems, large and growing budget deficits and debt burdens, and abysmally low savings rates are all converging and could trigger far greater economic disruption and economic hardship than the current housing and mortgage-related sub-prime "crisis." Walker proposes solutions to help ensure fiscal security for future generations and shares with his audiences:

• The significance of our fiscal and other key sustainability challenges
• The consequences of current U.S. policy
• Possible solutions and how best to pursue them
• The implications and opportunities for the government, companies and individuals

Marci Rosell 

The Economy 2009: A Roadmap to Recovery  
Marci Rossell electrifies audiences nationwide, speaking on the nexus of economics, politics, culture and the media. Her animated style was honed when she served as the popular, lively Chief Economist for CNBC in the months immediately following September 11th. She takes complex economic issues, often dull in the button-down business press, and makes them relevant to people's lives, families and careers.

In the aftermath of the Panic of 2008, the global economy will enter the recovery phase in 2009. While the era of cheap credit may be over, consumers will be getting a big "economic stimulus package" from falling gas prices, cheaper travel and less-expensive staples. As the economy begins to heal itself—through this type of consumer adjustment—recession inevitably gives way to recovery.