2024

Author and international keynote speaker Karin Hurt inspires transformational change. Recently named on Inc’s list of 100 Great Leadership Speakers and American Management Association’s 50 Leaders to Watch, Karin Hurt helps leaders from around the world achieve breakthrough results without losing their souls. Karin has over two decades of experience in customer service, sales, and human resources. She’s the award-winning author of: Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results-Without Losing Your Soul, Overcoming an Imperfect Boss, Courageous Cultures (Harper Collins 2020), and Glowstone Peak – a book for readers of all ages about courage, influence, and hope. A former Verizon Wireless executive, Karin transformed customer service outsourcing (96M calls/year) to reach parity in quality with internal centers and developed a leading sales team that won the President’s Award for Customer Growth. Her keynotes inspire leaders with proven and practical leadership techniques developed over her rich career as an executive, speaker, and strategic advisor. Karin has a BA in Communication from Wake Forest University, an MA from Towson University in Organizational Communication, and additional graduate work at the University of Maryland, where she teaches in the Executive Education program. She and her husband, David Dye, are dedicated to their philanthropic initiative, Winning Wells, which provides clean water wells to communities struggling with access to safe water throughout Southeast Asia. Karin lives outside of Washington, DC. She knows the stillness of a yogi, the reflective road of a marathoner, and the joy of being a mom raising emerging leaders.

Donna Fitzgerald managed her first IT program more than a decade before the 1996 version of the PMBoK was published. In the mid-90s, she became active in the nascent agile development community and later wrote for Tech Republic as the Nimble PM. In 2007, she joined Gartner’s equally nascent PPM research group, where she spent ten years. She’s the founder of Nimble PM and probably the most opinionated person when it comes to project management! While she’s occasionally accused of being an iconoclast, her commitment to helping PMs deliver successful projects and programs has never wavered.

Ruth has been called an executive coach for people who don't consider themselves to be executives because she is passionate about personal development for all. She coaches groups & individuals - it aligns with who she is. But Ruth was not always a coach. Before that, she was a program manager - for more than 25 (TWENTY-FIVE) years! A quarter-century. "That's a very long time" as a friend said to her recently. In 2016, she quit project management. Ruth was burned out. After 25 years in project management, she couldn't say the word “project”. She was done - exhausted, disconnected, cynical, useless. Now Ruth lives AND coaches by the motto BE HOPEFUL; BE STRONG; BE BRAVE; BE CURIOUS. She embraces the dark and light sides of life. Being a coach informs everything Ruth does: Everything is about you the client, the audience, the student. She listens deeply and helps make sense for you of what she hears. She plays back and retells your story from a different perspective to help you see a new step. She is 100% in your corner – and at the same time she tries to challenge you She rides the rollercoaster of life, just like we all do. Its dark side is just as valuable as its light side. VIA strengths: Appreciation, Bravery, Curiosity, Fairness, and Gratitude MIPI competencies: Motivational Self Efficacy, Motivational Influence, Perseverance Accreditations: ICF ACC Coach; Certified Coach Trainer; Certified Inclusion Coach; Certified MIPI Coach; PMI PMP & ACP; Institute Of Coaching Fellow; BetterUp Distinguished Fellow Coach Speaking Ruth has been privileged to address audiences totaling more than 150,000 including Project Managers, HR professionals, Coaches, Leaders, Managers, Teams, Interest Groups, Legal Professionals, and more.