speakers

Select speaker name to see full bio.


John Mackey
Co-Founder and CEO
Whole Foods Market
John Mackey, the co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, has built the natural and organic grocer from a single store in Austin, Texas in 1978, into a Fortune 500 company, which went public in 1992, and was purchased by Amazon in 2017. Today Whole Foods Market is a top U.S. supermarket with more than 500 stores and 95,000 Team Members across the U.S., Canada and U.K. Mackey has been recognized as one of Fortune’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” “Best CEO” by numerous financial journals, and “Most Inspiring CEO” by Esquire. He is author of the books Conscious Capitalism and Conscious Leadership.

Amelia Miazad
Founding Director
Business in Society Institute at Berkeley Law
Amelia Miazad is an expert in sustainable capitalism and founded and leads the Business in Society Institute at Berkeley Law. The Institute’s mission is to define and advance a legal and policy agenda that encourages companies to account for stakeholders and the environment. Amelia’s recent publications explore stakeholder governance and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) as a process for overseeing risk and a powerful tool for transforming corporate culture. She regularly presents to audiences of corporate executives in the US, South America, and Europe.

Brian Hooks
Chairman and CEO
Stand Together
Brian Hooks is president of the Charles Koch Foundation and chairman and CEO of Stand Together, a philanthropic community that works with more than 700 business leaders and philanthropists to empower people to realize their unique potential and help every person rise. Stand Together’s comprehensive approach to addressing the country’s biggest challenges includes support for more than 1000 professors at 300 universities, tens of thousands of K-12 teachers, more than 160 community-based organizations addressing persistent poverty, and millions of grassroots activists working to improve public policy.

Yvonne English
Executive Director, Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation | Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship
Grove City College
Yvonne English has started many companies, including an alternative energy project in Texas called ReEnergy and an online retailer of accessories made from up-cycled materials called Salvagist, to name just a couple. She also founded a business incubator called the eCenter@LindenPointe, and serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation at Grove City College (GCC), which under her leadership won the national USASBE Model Emerging Program Award in 2018.

Doug DeVos
Co-Chair
Amway Board of Directors
Doug is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for Amway, the world’s largest direct selling company with more than $8 billion in revenue. He previously served as President of Amway for more than 16 years. Doug, along with his wife Maria, is the Founder of Continuum Ventures – an investment company for The Doug & Maria DeVos Family. DeVos is a globally recognized leader whose focus on entrepreneurship and providing opportunity for people around the world to build business of their own has been a lifelong passion. Through the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, Doug and Maria help youth, families, and the Greater Grand Rapids community and beyond obtain resources to achieve their full potential. Doug also leads the Ambassador Network for Stand Together.

Ezequiel Vazquez-Ger
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Seven Restaurant Group
Ezequiel Vazquez-Ger is an Argentine entrepreneur based in Washington, DC, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Seven Restaurant Group, a restaurant holding and management company. He is the Co-Owner of Seven Reasons, a fine-casual, pan-Latin restaurant in DC that was named the Best New Restaurant in the Americas by Esquire Magazine in 2019, and the Best Restaurant in Washington DC by the Washington Post in 2019. He is also the Co-Owner of "Imperfecto", a new fine dining restaurant that will open in early 2021, and Co-Founder of Immigrant Food, a fast-casual advocacy restaurant that celebrates America's DNA: Immigration. Ezequiel is a trained economist and in 2016, he was named one of the 40 under 40 Latinos in foreign policy by the Huffington Post.

Will Anderson
Senior Director, Policy
Business Roundtable
Will Anderson is Senior Director, Policy for the Business Roundtable. In this role, he is responsible for analyzing and advocating federal legislative and regulatory policies that promote U.S. competitiveness, economic growth, and job creation. Before joining the Business Roundtable, Mr. Anderson has served as a Senior Associate for Patomak Global Partners LLC and as Advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.

Robert A. Sirico
President Emeritus
Acton Institute
meatless Friday. otherwise, no restrictions.

Andrew V. Abela
Dean
Busch School Of Business, The Catholic University Of America
N/A

Samuel J. Gregg D. Phil. (Oxon.)
Research Director
Acton Institute
None

Jim R. Otteson Ph.D.
John T. Ryan Jr. Professor Of Business Ethics
University Of Notre Dame
Dr. James Otteson is the John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics and Rex and Alice E. Martin Faculty Director of the Notre Dame/Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. He is also currently a "Visiting Scholar of the Feulner Institute at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.” He specializes in business ethics, political economy, the history of economic thought, and eighteenth-century moral philosophy. His books include The Essential Adam Smith and Honorable Business, among many others. He has three books forthcoming including Seven Deadly Economic Sins.

Anthony Bradley Ph.D
Distinguished Research Fellow
Acton Institute
Dr. Bradley is the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and the academic director at The Fund for American Studies. She also teaches at The Institute for World Politics, Grove City College, and George Mason University, and is currently an Acton Affiliate scholar. She is the co-editor and author of “Counting the Cost: Christian Perspectives on Capitalism,” “For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty” and “Be Fruitful and Multiply: Why Economics is Necessary for Making God-Pleasing Decisions.”

Acton Institute
Executive Director
Acton Institute
None