Hany Syed was born in Saudi Arabia to parents of South Asian origin. He migrated as a child with his family to the US at the age of two. Growing up in Southern California, he became an avid athlete and sports fan, engaging in baseball, football and basketball from young. He studied History at UC Berkeley and began a career in investment banking and then joined a few startups. He then earned his MBA from a joint UC Berkeley Haas Business School / Columbia University Business School program where he spent a year at each. He then made his way to Dubai in a principal-investing role. His focus was on social infrastructure sectors, with a particular emphasis on education. He recently launched Athleta Ed, a company focused on using sports examples to drive learning outcomes for traditional university accredited classes and industry validated certificate courses.

Denise Love Hewett developed a passion while young for film that has been a guiding light for her throughout her career. She combined this with an interest in fashion and interned with fashion magazines and as a costume designer for various shows and films, including Ugly Betty with ABC and Sex and the City 2. She crafted her own major at NYU called "Clothing as Culture". Post graduation, she worked in live event management and spent nearly two years at Viacom as a Segment Producer. Roughly five years ago, Denise launched Scriptd, a marketplace for scripts promoting democratization while streamlining the process of acquiring scripts. She is also host of the podcast "Do the Work".

Joann Klonowski was born and raised in Cleveland, OH. She began her career in finance and through a referral by a friend, worked in the accounting department of the PGA Championships when it was hosted in Detroit and Cleveland. That launched a luminous career in sports and sports team management. She has worked with such franchises as the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Cavaliers and LA Galaxy. She has established records in ticket sales for leading events such as the 1994 World Cup, and the 1999 Women's World Cup. She was also Vice President for the Special Olympics hosted in Los Angeles in 2015. She now teaches and does business development for Quint Events which arranges premier sports and entertainment experiences at such events as the Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby and Formula One.

Barbara Ligeti was born and raised in NY. She developed a fondness for dance at a young age. She attended Columbia University and entered the world of live performance and film production early in her career. She has always been drawn to wellness modalities, including adopting pilates, yoga and meditation practices. She launched a career as a book coach, assisting clients in getting their works published. She has also been a producer of a number of one-man shows. A partner and her launched a writing program called Shift Poetry, designed to support wellness through the process of writing. They recently released their second book called "Poetry Without Pants: Written When Nobody's Looking".

Allison Samon was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised on the Jersey Shore. She developed a love for television when young and made that a career ambition through college and in launching her career. She started as a Production Coordinator and worked her way up to being Second Assistant Director on some of the most popular soap operas in the US. In the process she moved to Los Angeles. She had been grappling with lifelong chronic pain that reached such an intolerable level that she was not able to climb stairs. She finally began exploring managing her nutrition better and found this to be the right solution. She left her career in production and is now a Nutrition Coach, bringing the wisdom which helped her to others who are suffering with similar symptoms.

Kai Mildenberger was born and raised in northwest Germany near the border with the Netherlands. He developed a passion for technology while young and migrated to the US to study for his bachelor's degree. He launched a software and ERP implementation business shortly after graduating, which he ultimately sold to Computer Associates. After leaving them, over the next several years, Kai was involved in a series of start-ups, leading various technology teams at the most senior level. Most recently, he has become Co-Founder of psyML, applying a psychometric analytical framework to big data sets and utilizing machine learning and AI to enhance the human experience.

Neil Patel was born and raised in Leicester, UK, where he gained crucial experience as an entrepreneur while young, working in his family's business. He moved from there into real estate, establishing one of the most successful offices in the region. At 25, he launched his own real estate business and used that as a launching pad to introduce technology into the property purchasing process, creating One Move Technologies. He migrated to Canada shortly thereafter and launched a company helping businesses create videos to support their marketing efforts. He moved from there into 3-D printing of furniture. That interest in design led him to start Kabuni, which he has now pivoted into a virtual reality platform that will launch in 2021.

Alex Azzi was born in Lebanon and left at the age of six for New Zealand to escape the war that had broken out in 1986. He was mostly raised in New Zealand, with a few years in Qatar, before returning to New Zealand for his university studies. He then lived in a number of regions in the world, finally settling in Dubai, which he now calls home. Alex was drawn to marketing from young, particularly in digital marketing. This interest grew alongside a passion for health optimization, also known as biohacking. He launched an agency in Dubai focused on companies in that space and has actively pursued opportunities in biohacking, including a strong focus in the uses of virtual reality.

Sundaram Tagore comes from the most prominent Indian family in the arts for their awe-inspiring contribution to the sub-continent's culture, including Nobel-prize winning writer Rabindranath Tagore. Sundaram grew up in a home that mirrored the salons of Europe, where artists and intellectuals of all forms would drop in at his family house in Calcutta for an open-invitation lunch. He migrated to Canada in his late teens and made his way to the US, where he would eventually study. He landed in New York post-undergrad and leveraged his passion for art history into roles working with galleries. He spent a year in Venice establishing one of the most popular exhibits for their Biennale. Subsequent to that, he went to Oxford to pursue his doctoral studies. Sundaram opened a gallery in NY roughly two decades ago with a theme of cross-cultural representation. It has expanded to multiple locations and a global footprint. His personal artistic expression remains documentary film-making; his most recent endeavor called Tiger City celebrates architect Louis Kahn's last contribution to humanity.

Aparajita Jeedigunta was born in a small town along the Southeastern Indian coast and grew up in Hyderabad. She migrated to the US at the age of 14, settling in Michigan. She started her undergrad as pre-med, but due to a traumatic brain injury, she opted to study psychology after researching her condition extensively. While pursuing graduate studies for her Master's and doctorate in psychology, she unfortunately suffered another traumatic brain injury. She recovered once more and engaged in extensive academic research and teaching. Recently, she has become a vocal advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion.