Opening Keynote

Frans Johansson

Author, entrepreneur, and acclaimed international speaker, Frans Johansson has inspired readers and audiences worldwide with his ideas on leadership, innovation, and diversity, while his practical insights have empowered thousands to take action. In his role as CEO of The Medici Group, Frans has advised executive leadership at Fortune 500 companies such as Disney, IBM, Nike, and Mastercard. His firm recently launched Via Renaissance, a revolutionary Change Acceleration Platform that enables entire divisions to adopt specific changes in behavior on a continual basis.

Frans is the author of The Medici Effect (Harvard Business Press, 2004 & 2017), which innovation legend Clay Christensen described as “one of the most insightful books on managing innovation that I have ever read.” His follow up book, The Click Moment (Penguin Portfolio, 2012) was hailed by Fast Company as the book that challenges traditional business-school thinking, having destroyed the 10,000-hour rule. The Medici Effect has been translated into 21 different languages and become the definitive book on diversity driving innovation, influencing numerous industries and fields such as architecture, design, economic development, education, and investing.

Raised in Sweden by his African-American/Cherokee mother and Swedish father, Frans has lived all his life at the intersection. He has been featured on ABC, CNN, CNBC, the PBS Newshour, and National Public Radio. He has spoken to audiences on six continents, in virtually every industry, and across disciplines, from creatives to engineers, financiers to scientists, and politicians to humanitarians. Frans holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Brown University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the New York Hall of Science.