Karen Martin, President of the global consulting firm TKMG, Inc. and President and Founder of TKMG Academy, Inc., is a leading authority on business performance improvement, problem solving, and Lean management systems.

Known for her keen diagnostic skills and rapid-results approach, Karen and her team have worked with clients such as Adventist Health, AT&T, Chevron, Epson, GlaxoSmithKline, International Monetary Fund, Lenovo, Mayo Clinic, Prudential Insurance, Qualcomm, and the United States Department of Defense to develop more efficient work systems, grow market share, solve business problems, and accelerate performance.

An in-demand speaker, she’s the two-time Shingo Award-winning author of The Outstanding Organization and co-author of Value Stream Mapping, and co-author of two other titles on business performance improvement. Her latest book, Clarity First, was a finalist for 800-CEO-READ’s Business Book of the Year.

You can also find her at: 

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Bill Balzer is author of Lean Higher Education: Increasing the Value and Performance of University Processes 2nd Edition (2020, Routledge), an update to his 2010 book and acknowledged to be one of the definitive books on Lean Higher Education (LHE). Balzer’s research interests include understanding and improving the application of Lean principles and practices in higher education and expanding the contributions of his discipline, industrial-organizational psychology, to the understanding, application, and evaluation of Lean. Balzer continues to publish and present work on LHE and has been an invited keynote speaker on the topic of LHE. He has participated in numerous university initiatives to improve university processes and effectiveness, and advises colleges and universities contemplating the adoption of Lean.

Balzer has over 35 years of experience in higher education. He is a professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Bowling Green State University where he holds an administrative appointment as Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Strategic Initiatives. Balzer has served in a number of leadership roles at the university including program director of the nationally ranked doctoral program in IO psychology, chair of the department of psychology, and Dean of BGSU Firelands College. He recently completed a one-year appointment as interim president at Owens Community College (OH).  In 1996-97, he was a Fellow of the American Council on Education and spent his fellowship year working in the office of the president at Wayne State University.

For more information, visit www.leanhighereducation.com or contact Bill at wbalzer@bgsu.edu.

Vanessa is an award-winning broadcaster, best-selling author, prize-winning academic and leadership coach.

After graduating from Oxford University with First Class honours in Geography, she moved into television, specialising in science, environment, culture and history -subjects that remain her passion both on and off screen. For over 25 years, she’s worked on all seven continents on earth, for UK channels BBC1, 2 & 4, ITV, STV, Channels 4 & 5, and globally via Discovery, The History Channel and TLC (USA), ABC (Australia), TVNZ (New Zealand) and RTHK (China). After decade presenting network current affairs shows for Channel 5, ITV & BBC, she took over the chair of Making History, Radio 4’s flagship weekly history series. Her 4x1hr documentary series, Captain Cook – Obsession & Discovery based on her best-selling book, has been screened around the world winning five major international awards including a Canadian “Oscar”.

A former columnist for The Telegraph, The Scotsman, BBC History and Who Do You Think You Are? magazines, her feature credits include the Daily Mail, Scotsman, Sunday Herald and South China Morning Post. As an author, her books include biographies on Captain Cook (2002), Boudica (2005) and also The Story of Australia (2008), plus multiple chapters for Seventy Greatest Journeys in History (2006) and The Greatest Explorers in History (2010). She’s written forewords for Land of Mountain and Flood (2007), The Ancient Pinewoods of Scotland (2013) and The Rainforests of Britain and Ireland (2015), while scholarly publications include those for New Directions in Travel Writing Studies (2015) & a special edition of The Cartographic Journal (2021).

Vanessa gained her PhD in the history of science, ideas & public engagement, focusing on Cook’s search for the Great Southern Continent (Antarctica) and how the eighteenth century press turned ‘expert knowledge’ into ‘news’. She lectures around the world on science, history, geography, and public engagement, plus impact and communication skills. She is a Fellow of the RGS, Vice President of the RSGS, on the Board of Café Scientifique, and is co-founder & host of Glasgow and Hong Kong’s Cafés Scientifiques stimulating debate between the scientific community and the general public. She is a regular speaker and event host at Book Festivals including Edinburgh, Cheltenham, The Borders, Hong Kong and Christchurch (New Zealand), and the Festival of Ideas at Oxford.

A qualified cosmonaut on Star City’s Space Tourism Programme, she is also director of Monster Media Productions making radio and television programmes for broadcast and corporate clients; it also provides executive coaching across the world in media, communication and impact/presentation skills. After three years living in Hong Kong, China, she is now back home in Scotland with her partner, their four sons, a dog, two cats, an African pygmy hedgehog and an axolotl….

Francisco Mahfuz has always loved speaking, even before he had anything useful to say. He's been telling his stories in front of audiences for close to a decade, and even became a National Champion of public speaking. 

Today, Francisco is a keynote speaker and storytelling coach and offers communication training to individuals and international organisations. He's the author of "Bare: A Guide to Brutally Honest Public Speaking" and the host of The Storypowers Podcast, where he interviews global experts on how to use the power of stories to engage, persuade and inspire. 

Gavin Oattes is Managing Director and owner of Tree of Knowledge, one of the UK’s most exciting people development organisations. Working with some of the largest organisations in the world, Gavin is now regarded as one the most talented and sought after speakers, regularly delivering keynote speeches at conferences and exhibitions around the world. An award winning comedian, best-selling author and former Young Entrepreneur of the Year, his inspiration all comes from where he began his career….Primary School Teaching.