-National director for Talent, Culture and Experience at Universidad Tecmilenio

-MBA from the Hult International Business School

-Expert in the fields of Organisational Psychology and Gestalt Psychology

-Considered to be one of the top 100 women leaders in Spain, in the category of Thinkers and Experts according to Mujeres & Cía

-Gave classes at CETT, ESADE, EAE Ostelea and at the Garrigues Study Centre (Spain)

-Was president for promoting diversity, innovation and growth at the TruthMark Foundation

-Notable for her performance as Human Resources Director at Inditex and CEO of the Great Place to Work Institute

-Founded her consultancy Grooooow 10 years ago, which specialises in creating positive experiences of change in organisations

-Meaning of life: “Create a better world for ourselves and our children to live in by transforming workplaces

-She was awarded “Mujer Tec 2020” in the Transforming Power category.

Dr. Michael F. Steger is Professor of Psychology and the Director for the Center for Meaning and Purpose at Colorado State University.

He is an internationally recognized authority on the benefits of finding meaning in one’s life and in one’s work. Dr. Steger is a sought after speaker and enjoys providing keynotes, workshops, and retreats around the world on topics ranging from meaning and purpose, flourishing at work, positive education, effective leadership, and expanding clinical practice by incorporating meaning and purpose assessment and interventions.

He is the developer of the most widely-used measures of meaning and purpose in the world, including the Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Work and Meaning Inventory.

He has published his research in more than 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and three books, including Designing Positive Psychology, Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace, and the Handbook of Positivity and Strengths-Based Approaches at Work.

Dr. Steger offers a number of online courses on elevating success in work and life, including his newest courses: Meaning in the Moment (https://wholebeinginstitute.com/meaning-in-the-moment/) and Mastering Your Motivation, available through www.michaelsteger.online.

Fred Kofman is an executive coach and advisor on leadership and culture. PhD. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

He is founder and president of the Conscious Business Center. Fred founded his global consulting company, Axialent, which delivered leadership programs to more than 15,000 executives around the world. In 2018, Fred accepted a position as Vice President at Google in charge of advising the CEO's office on leadership and culture. And during the same year he partnered with Tecnológico de Monterrey to create the Center of Conscious Leadership. Previously, he was Vice President of executive development at LinkedIn.

Fred is the author of the trilogy Metamanagement (2001), Conscious Business (2006) and The Meaning Revolution (2018).

Cultivating Connection through Chaos

Dr Peggy Kern is an associate professor at the Centre for Positive Psychology within the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education. Originally trained in social, personality, and developmental psychology, Peggy received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Arizona State University, a Masters and Ph.D. in social/personality psychology from the University of California and postdoctoral training in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her research focuses on understanding, measuring, and supporting wellbeing across the lifespan. She works with schools and workplaces to examine strategies for supporting wellbeing, and bridging gaps between research and practice.  She has worked with many of the leaders across the positive psychology field. In 2016, she founded the International Positive Psychology Association’s Education division, and developed and leads the Professional Certificate in Positive Education at Melbourne University.

You can find out more about Peggy’s work at www.peggykern.org

Ignacio de la Vega isanexperiencedand internationally seasoned senior managerin the education field, with experience in strategy formulation and implementation. Dr. De la Vega currently serves as Dean of EGADE Business School and Dean of the undergraduate Business School system at Tecnológico de Monterrey, México, the leading Business School in Mexico and LATAM. Nominated in 2020 “Educator of the Year” by the prestigious Academy of International Business.

Previously,he served as Director of the Babson Global Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership (BGCEL)in the Middle East. Ignacio was responsible for the strategic direction, tactical execution,and operational supervision of Babson Global Entrepreneurship centers in the region and around the worldand the management of different funders and stakeholders. The Centers focus on expanding the practice of entrepreneurship through innovative co-curricular programs and global collaborative research initiatives.

Ignacio served for two periodsas global Chairman of the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) consortium, the largest study of entrepreneurship in the worldcomprising 100 top universities.De la Vega has authored 3 books on Entrepreneurial Management and published frequently in several mediaacross the world.

Prior to coming to EGADE, Dr. De La Vega also served as the Chief Learning Officer for the global bank BBVA(at the time one of the 50 largest banks in the world) with responsibilities in 17 countries, and before that as Chief Corporate Entrepreneur at the large restaurant and retail Mexican-Spanish company SIGLA.

Oriana works from a Positive Psychology perspective and finds that the Science of Happiness at Work is perfectly aligned with a people-focused approach that builds capability and capacity in others. Which is exactly how she likes to work. That’s because it’s the fastest and most enabling system for achieving results: everyone engages with the process.

She works as an organizational consultant, change expert, team and executive coach. With 20 years of experience in her field, she has developed profound knowledge by working with a wide range of clients, including manufacturing, financial services, retails, IT and logistics. She also teaches at Masters level at the University of East London, and at the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness of Tecmilenio University in Mexico.

One of the things that gives her great Happiness at Work is seeing change occur and results delivered as people get reinvigorated by insights about themselves and their teams. She particularly enjoys supporting others inside organizations to use the Science of Happiness at Work™ to create an atmosphere in which people and organizations flourish. Her favorite quote in this respect is, “I never imagined we could cover so much ground in so little time.

Oriana is the past president of the International Coach Federation Mexico chapter, and known as an authority on the profession. She and her business partner Mercedes Jahn co-authored a Spanish-language book on Sustainable Leadership. She works in both Spanish and English

Martin Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he focuses on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression, and optimism. He is a best-selling author of several books, including Flourish. He received the American Psychological Society’s William James Fellow Award for basic science and Cattell Award for the application of science, and two Distinguished Scientific Contribution awards from the American Psychological Association. In 1996, Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the largest vote in modern history. His current mission is the attempt to transform social science to work on the best things in life – strengths, positive emotion, good relationships, meaning, and human flourishing.

Simon Murray, OAM, served as a Headmaster across three schools for 27 years, and an educator for over 40 years. Most recently he was the 14th Headmaster of St Peter’s College, Australia. In June 2018 he was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for services to education and professional associations. In June 2019 he was honoured for his pioneering work and internationally recognised leadership in the field of Positive Education by the Positive Psychology Centre, University of Pennsylvania and the Eisenhower Fellowships.

In February 2020 he was appointed Global Chair of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN).

He is a member of the Board of the Centre for Positive Psychology, The University of Melbourne and holds the position of Chief Advisor to the Positive Education China Academy. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Education at the University of Adelaide and a member of the Board at St Mark’s Residential College, Adelaide.

In February 2020 he was awarded the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL SA), Alby Jones Gold Medal for a significant contribution to education, educational leadership and the improvement of student and organisational outcomes at local, national and international levels.

He has co-edited two scholarly books on evidence- based applications of positive psychology and future directions in wellbeing. He has published scientific articles, book chapters and presented on positive psychology and positive education at numerous international conferences.

Dora Gudrun Gudmundsdottir is Director of Public Health at the Directorate of Health in Iceland. Dora is trained clinical and organisational psychologist and holds a PhD in public health.

Her research interests focus on the epidemiology of wellbeing and finding reliable measures to evaluate the wellbeing of a population over time.

Dora´s passion lies in finding effective ways for individuals, institutions and societies to flourish. She has a special interest in enhancing evidence based knowledge in policy making and interventions.

She has served as a governmental expert on mental health and do represent Iceland in a Steering group for NCD prevention for the EU.

At the Directorate of Health in Iceland her division leads the work on health promoting communities – wellbeing for all, which collaborates with the prime minister´s office on UN´s Sustainable Development Goals and Wellbeing Economy.

Her current research projects focus on evaluating wellbeing programmes in schools and primary health care.

She is the author of a book on Wellbeing and Success in Icelandic.

She has also written a chapter for The World Book of Happiness (www.theworldbookofhappiness.com) as well as “Positive Psychology for Social Change”.

Dora has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences, e.g. at the World Health Organisation´s conference on Health in All Policies, the European Conference on Positive Psychology and the African Positive Psychology Conference.

She is affiliated with the Wellbeing institute, Cambridge University, Director of Graduate Diploma programme on Positive Psychology at the University of Iceland, and the current president of the European Network for Positive Psychology (ENPP) www.enpp.eu

Co-founder of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan

Kim Cameron is William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organizations in the Ross School of Business and Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education. His past research on organizational virtuousness, downsizing, effectiveness, corporate quality culture, and the development of leadership excellence has been published in more than 130 academic articles and 15 scholarly books. His current research focuses on virtuousness in and of organizations--such as forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, and compassion--and their relationship to performance.  He is one of the co-founders of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan and has served as Dean at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, Associate Dean in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, and Associate Dean and department chair at the University of Michigan.  He was recognized as among the top ten organizational scholars in the world whose work has been most frequently downloaded on Google.

Caroline is one of the world’s leading experts on the science behind successful goal setting and the use of ‘good grit’ to achieve hard things. For more than 30 years, she’s been sharing her research-backed, actionable strategies to help people cultivate more grit and dig deeper to clarify and achieve their toughest goals.

Caroline has a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School’s Executive Education program.

Caroline is the author of six books, incluiding Creating Your Best Life. Live Happy Magazine named Creating Your Best Life one of the top 10 goal setting books ever published and Getting Grit one of the 10 books that would change your life in 2017. Caroline’s books have been translated into German, Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Italian.

Achieving hard goals is one of the most rewarding things we can do in both our personal and professional lives.

Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), is responsible for a wide spectrum of education in Dubai’s private sector, spanning early learning, school, and higher education and training Institutes.

  Abdulla has the distinction of holding key positions across the United Arab Emirates, as well as being a Board member of the National Qualifications Authority, of the UAE Federal Government. He was also appointed to the Board of the Social Sector, Government of Dubai. He has recently been nominated a member of the Higher Committee for Protection of the Rights of People with Disabilities in the Emirate of Dubai.

  Previously, Abdulla held positions in various government sectors, including: Vice Chairman and Secretary General, Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance; Chairman of the Dubai Government’s Human Resources Committee, which was  set up as the link between human resources programmes and initiatives and Dubai’s goals and strategic priorities; Board member, Dubai Knowledge Fund, which seeks to effectively participate in developing Dubai’s knowledge capital through profitably managing funds. He was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Education 2010.

Prior to the formation of KHDA, Abdulla held the post of CEO of Dubai Knowledge Village, which ushered in the International Branch Campus, with a remit to diversify the educational landscape in Dubai. Before that, Abdulla headed the Research Unit at Dubai Internet City and began his career working as a software engineer in the United States and France.

Abdulla holds a PhD in computer engineering from the University of South Carolina.

Marisa Salanova is Doctor in Psychology and Professor of Social Psychology,specializing in Positive Organizational Psychology at the Jaume I University (UJI). She is the director of "WANT_Research Team" of the UJI. She is a founding partner and outgoing president of the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology.

Author of books "Healthy Organizations: A Look from Positive Psychology", "Work Engagement", "Occupational Health Psychology", "Development of human resources through learning for change", "Techno-stress", between others. Researcher of competitive projects on Well-being at Work and Organizations, including in recent projects issues related to generational diversity (Active aging) and gender diversity. She has more than 300 national and international publications on occupational health psychology (work stress, burnout, techno-stress, work addiction ...) and more recently she has focused on Positive Psychology applied to work with publications on work engagement, flow at work, self-efficacy, positive and healthy organizations and organizational resilience.

She has published in impact journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Anxiety, Stress & Coping, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior, Group & Organizational Management, among others.

She actively participates in competitive research projects granted by public funds, and in consulting and advisory activities to companies on psychosocial risk prevention, training, applied positive psychology and HR development, executed through R + D contracts.

She has received recognition for her career, such as the Clara Campoamor Award in Valencia (2015), the recognition of October 9 for her professional career (2015), the recognition by the Valencian Courts for her career on the International Woman’s Day (2017) and the Ágora Bienestar award in the category of professional trajectory in research on well-being at work (2019).

She is a member of the editorial committee of the journals: Applied Psychology: An International Review, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Behavior, European Journal of Work and Organizacional Psychology, Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, Psicothema y Anxiety and Stress.

Finally, she is also a member of international Scientific Associations such as EAWOP (European Association on Work and Organizational Psychology), IAAP (International Association of Applied Psychology), SOHP (Society for Occupational Health Psychology), and IPPA (International Positive Psychology Association).

Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer. He taught two of the largest classes in Harvard University’s history, Positive Psychology and The Psychology of Leadership. Today, Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations. The topics he lectures on include leadership, happiness, education, innovation, ethics, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and have appeared on best-sellers lists around the world.

Tal is a serial entrepreneur, and is the co-founder and chief learning officer of Happiness Studies Academy, Potentialife, Maytiv, and Happier.TV.

An avid sportsman, Tal won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. Today, for exercise, he swims, dances, and practices Yoga. He obtained his PhD in Organizational Behavior and BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.

SUZANN (“Suzie”) PILEGGI PAWELSKI has a Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is a freelance writer, well-being consultant, and international speaker specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health. Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, “The Happy Couple,” was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts.

 Happy Together was named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, Fatherly and The Greater Good Science Center. 

Suzie pens a popular blog for Psychology Today and writes the “Science of Well-being” column for Live Happy, where she is also a contributing editor. 

Her writing and work has been featured in numerous top-tier media including Time magazine, Inc. magazine, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the (London) Times.She gives “Romance and Research” (TM) workshops around the world with her husband James.

Previously, Suzie directed award-winning media relations campaigns for Fortune 500 clients, worked in publicity at Radio City Music Hall and was an associate producer for HBO Downtown Productions and The Joan Rivers Show.



JAMES PAWELSKI, Ph.D., is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania where he co-founded the Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program with Martin Seligman in 2005.

 The Founding Executive Director of IPPA, he is currently leading a three-year, multi-million-dollar grant investigating connections between the science of well-being and the arts and humanities.

 In collaboration with Penn’s Campaign for Wellness, he recently launched a new interdisciplinary undergraduate course called “The Pursuit of Happiness” to help teach students how to increase their well-being. 

An award-winning teacher and international keynote speaker, who regularly makes presentations in Spanish as well as English, he has given talks in more than 20 countries on 6 continents, including “Romance and Research” (TM) workshops with his wife Suzie. He is frequently featured in major U.S.

and international media, including the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Time magazine, U.S. News and World Report, People’s Daily (China), El Norte (Mexico), and has appeared on various television networks such as NBC (The Today Show), Globo, Univisión, and Toronto Public Television.

Fred Kofman is an executive coach and advisor on leadership and culture. PhD. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He is founder and president of the Conscious Business Center. Fred founded his global consulting company, Axialent, which delivered leadership programs to more than 15,000 executives around the world. In 2018, Fred accepted a position as Vice President at Google in charge of advising the CEO's office on leadership and culture. And during the same year he partnered with Tecnológico de Monterrey to create the Center of Conscious Leadership. Previously, he was Vice President of executive development at LinkedIn. Fred is the author of the trilogy Metamanagement (2001), Conscious Business (2006) and The Meaning Revolution (2018).

Anne is Principal of Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney and Chair of the Positive Education Schools Association (PESA).

Anne holds Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws (with honours) degrees, as well as a Graduate Diploma of Education and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in which she achieved a distinguished capstone (thesis) award, under the supervision of Professor Martin Seligman. Anne is currently completing a PhD on applying positive psychology principles in education under the supervision of Professor Lea Waters and Aaron Jarden, through the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Anne is one of the pioneers of positive education having commenced work in this area as a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship in 2004, during which she conducted research while based at Cambridge University on how to foster resilience in learning. Anne has since led the implementation of Positive Education in three schools - as Deputy Headmistress of St Catherine's in Sydney, Principal of Seymour College in Adelaide and now as Principal of Ravenswood in Sydney.

This year, Anne was one of just five educators globally (including Sir Anthony Seldon, Simon Murray, Stephen Meek and Steve Pilch), as well as the only female recipient, awarded for her pioneering work and internationally recognised leadership in the field of positive education.

In 2018, Anne was awarded the prestigious Australian Speech and Communication Association Award for Excellence, and as a young teacher, was awarded The Teachers' Guild of NSW Award for Excellence in The Early Years of Teaching (2003).

Professor Lea Waters AM, PhD, is an Australian academic, psychologist, author and speaker who holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology and is an world expert in School Psychology and Parenting. She is the Director of the school program Visible Wellbeing and has developed several e-wellbeing resources for teachers to deliver to students via online and virtual classrooms.

Lea’s online family program the Strength Switch is based upon her acclaimed parenting book, 'The Strength Switch', which was the top release on Amazon in the parenting category, listed among the Top Reads for 2017 by Berkeley University’s Greater Good Science Center and one of the Top Five Books for Parents and Children in the UK’s Top Five site. It has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Hungarian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Russian.

Lea's work is featured in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Toronto Globe, The Guardian (UK and Australia), and more. Her TEDx talk, Warning: Being positive is not for the faint hearted!, explores how we can use social media to have a positive impact on others’ wellbeing and has been viewed more than 130,000 times.

Professor Waters is the Founding Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne, where she has held an academic position for 24 years. She also holds a position on the Science Board of The University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.

Lea has published over 110 scientific publications and has been awarded academic prizes for research excellence by the American Academy of Management and the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.

In 2015, Professor Waters was listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review. In 2020, Lea was honoured by the Governor General of Australia and named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) which is one of the highest civilian honours in Australia. She was made a member based on her leadership to psychology, education and the mental health sector in Australia.

Lea is the recent Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) (2017-2019) and is currently a Board member of IPPA as well as being the Patron for Flourishing Education Japan and the Ambassador for the Positive Education Schools Association.

Mathew A. White PhD is Deputy Head of the School of Education and an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is also a Principal Honorary Fellow in Melbourne Graduate School of Education and an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Mathew is the President of the International Positive Psychology Association’s Education Division.

His research focuses on character education, leading change, positive education, and strategic planning in education and wellbeing education. Mathew has co-edited four books including Critical Perspectives on Teaching, Learning and Leadership: Enhancing Educational Outcomes (Springer, forthcoming 2020), Future Directions in Wellbeing: Education, Organisations, and Policy (Springer, 2017), Evidence-Based Approaches in Positive Education Implementing a Strategic Framework for Well-being in Schools (Springer, 2015), and Theology Encountering Positive Psychology (Wipf & Stock, 2017).

In 2020 he was given the Distinguished Contribution to Research in Educational Leadership Award by the South Australian Branch of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL-SA). Before his appointment to the University of Adelaide in 2018, Mathew held senior leadership positions in schools and has 20 years of teaching experience.

His next book edited with Professor Faye McCallum Wellbeing and Resilience Education: Covid-19 And Its Impact on Education Systems will be published by Routledge (2021).  

Self-actualization is the birthright of every human being and is the key to living a fulfilling life and contributing positively to our world. My life's mission is to play a catalyzing role in the global movement supporting the development of authentic and self-aware leaders, who are co-creating a shared vision for the betterment of society and our collective evolution.

Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham until September 2020, is one of Britain’s leading contemporary historians, educationalists, commentators and political authors. He is author or editor of over 40 books on contemporary history, including the inside books on the last five Prime Ministers, Chair of the National Archives Trust, was the co-founder and first director of the Institute for Contemporary British History, and is co-founder of Action for Happiness.

Professor Ilona Boniwell is one of the founders of positive psychologist in Europe, working in the field for over 20 years, originally mentored by Martin Seligman.

  She heads the International MSc in Positive Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, teaches at CentraleSupelec and HEC, France, wrote or edited seven books, developed five educational curricula and twelve pedagogical tools, delivered over 200 keynotes, founded the ENPP and was the first vice-chair of the IPPA.

Nowadays, as a director of Positran, Ilona delivers advanced professional training in positive psychology, having trained thousands of professionals around the world.

She worked for the Government of Bhutan and currently consults the Government of UAE around the development of the toolkit for workplace positivity and organisational well-being assessment. 

Her main research interests are around subjective time use, time perspective, eudaimonic well-being and applications of positive psychology to business, one-to-one work and education.

Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ph.D., is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality at Harvard University.

He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics. His methodological research is focused on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences, and, more recently, on measurement theory and the importance of incorporating ideas from causal inference and analytic philosophy into measure development and evaluation.

His empirical research spans psychiatric and social epidemiology; the science of happiness and flourishing; and the study of religion and health, including both religion and population health and the role of religion and spirituality in end-of-life care. He is the recipient of the 2017 Presidents’ Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS).

He has published over three hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals, and is author of the books Explanation in Causal Inference (2015) and Measuring Well-Being (2020), both published by Oxford University Press. 

I passionately advocate for Emotional Wellbeing and actively pursue its implementation in educational programs and parenting styles. Understanding our emotions allows us to embrace our humanity and connect to others from a common ground, bringing us together in magical ways. I believe every individual has innate strengths and great value to share in the world that can be discovered through conscious living; in pursuit of their Kyan - their Essence.

Ryan M. Niemiec, Psy.D. is a leading figure in the global education, research, and practice of character strengths that are found in all human beings.

He’s education director of the renown VIA Institute on Character, a nonprofit organization in Cincinnati that leads the global advancement of the science of character strengths. Ryan is an award-winning psychologist, certified coach, annual instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of 10 books, 90+ academic papers, and several-hundred user-friendly articles.

His books include the bestselling consumer book, The Power of Character Strengths, the popular stress workbook The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief, the 2020 workbook The Positivity Workbook for Teens, and Positive Psychology at the Movies. He’s also author of two of the leading practitioner-focused books in positive psychology – Character Strengths Interventions and Mindfulness and Character Strengths. The latter book contains the evidenced-based program he founded, Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP), used by practitioners across the globe.

Ryan has been interviewed by a number of luminaries including the legendary Larry King in 2020. He’s given over 800 presentations on positive psychology topics, including a TEDx talk in 2017, a speaking tour of Australia, a keynote at a Harvard conference, and invited presentations across the globe. He is Fellow of the International Positive Psychology Association and serves on their Council of Advisors.

Ryan lives in Cincinnati with his wife and three young, zestful children. His highest strengths are hope, love, honesty, fairness, spirituality, and appreciation of beauty.

Vanessa is an expert in pro-actively building psychological wellbeing and resilience. An experienced leadership consultant, trainer, speaker and author, she has worked with a wide range of organisations around the world.

She is a Board member at the charity and social movement, Action for Happiness, founded by economist Professor, Lord Richard Layard and leads its work with organisations. She is one of a small group of people globally to have completed a Masters degree in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) at the University of Pennsylvania, studying under Martin Seligman and many other leaders in this field.

She also trained as a facilitator on the University of Pennsylvania’s Master Resilience Training programme for the US Army, aimed at fostering greater emotional and social wellbeing.

Masaya Okamoto works as researcher and Mindfulness instructor at the Institute of Wellbeing and Happiness at Tecmilenio University.

Integrating his extensive teaching experiences across cultures in meditation and mindfulness with his past studies in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Manchester and the University of Hong Kong, he serves to contribute to research and education in mindfulness integrated with character strengths and virtues for an integral flourishing of the Earth community.

He started the practice of Meditation at the age of 3, Yoga at the age of 6, Qigong and Tai Chi at the age of 12. In the last 10 years, he has taught and led numerous courses, workshops, teacher trainings, and retreats of Meditation and Mindfulness as well as related disciplines in integral wellbeing, holistic education and health, and integral human development in various countries, notably in Japan, Hong Kong, the UK, France, Switzerland, Finland, India, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, the USA, and Mexico. In addition to daily meditation practices, he has completed numerous 12-day intensive Vipassana Meditation trainings and a 49-day intensive meditation training. In addition to Meditation and Mindfulness, he is also a teacher of Qigong, Tai Chi, and Yoga.

His life-long search on universal virtues as well as perennial and integral wisdom for the evolution of consciousness and culture led him to study MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology at the University of East London to contribute better to Positive Mindfulness Education and to the world’s first Positive University (Tecmilenio University).

More recently he has been leading a massive train-the-trainer implementation of an 8-week program Mindfulness-Based Strength Practice (MBSP) and creating a new 16-week certificate program of Virtuous Mindfulness for Integral Wellbeing.

As an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong, my research mainly focuses on the family ecological and positive psychological factors that are related to anxiety, depression and suicide of children and adolescents.

I have published over 50 papers related to children and adolescent mental health problems, parenting and positive education in international refereed journals. I have been invited as guest speaker and keynote speaker in 60 conferences and symposiums. As the convenor of the Positive Education Laboratory, we have collaborated with over 200 local schools(from pre-primary schools to universities) to promote positive education for 75,000 students, 7,500 teachers, 35,000 parents and the community.I was also granted about US$6 million research funding in the previous years.

Positive education is also extended to the social welfare agencies, including elderly services, school social work services, children and youth services, services for students with special education needs, service for ex-mentally ill patients in half way houses, and Mass Transit Railway Corporation staff. Over 200 social workertraining, teacher training and parentworkshops have been conducted.

Music elements and experiential exercises have been integrated with positive education concepts in the programs. Moreover, tenpositive education manuals, both in Chinese and English, were uploaded to our laboratory website and downloaded by people worldwide. In addition, online games and computer games to promote character strengths and positive parent-child communication, website to alleviate anxiety and enhance positive parenting, were producedwith the assistance of the university students.

More recently he has been leading a massive train-the-trainer implementation of an 8-week program Mindfulness-Based Strength Practice (MBSP) and creating a new 16-week certificate program of Virtuous Mindfulness for Integral Wellbeing.

Ricardo Arguís Rey is a teacher of Special Education, Psychologist and Doctor in Education.

He has been working for more than30 years in the educational field, alternating periods as a classroom teacher with other professional stages as a consultant andteacher trainer. He coordinates the SatiTeam, a work group that, since 2009, has been dedicated to the study and promotion of Positive Education for students of preschool, primary and secondaryeducation.

In October 2010, this team published the “Happy Classrooms” Programme, the first handbook in Spanish addressing Positive Education with students aged 3 to 18 years, based on the principles of mindfulness and the education of character strengths. In December 2014, the English translation of this book waspublished. This programme is completely gratuitous and for free distribution, and can be downloaded athttp://educaposit.blogspot.com.

Ricardo combines his current work as a remedial teacher in a state secondary school,with his activity as a lecturer and consultant in the field of Positive Psychology applied to Education, both in Spainand abroad. Hecollaborates with various universities as an invited lecturer,and has delivered numerous lectures and workshops in Spainas well as in Argentina,Canada,Chile,Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador,Mexico, Peru, United States, Uruguayand Venezuela.

He is a member of the International Positive Psychology Association(IPPA)and the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology.Since January 2015, he is a Global Representative for the International Positive Education Network (IPEN) in Spain. Besides, since August 2017, he is a member of the steering committee of IPPA’s Education Division, where he co-leadsthe Research and Practice Programme.In July 2019, hereceived the “Positive Educator Impact Award”, given at IPPA’s 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology (Melbourne, Australia), in recognition of the impact of hislong-standing work in the dissemination and application of Positive Education internationally.

She was the director of the Positive Psychology School of the Metropolitan University.

Doctorate in Psychology and Education from the University of Seville

Consultant for National and international companies with a specialization in organizational wellbeing.

Participated in lectures and workshops in organizations such as Coca Cola, Pfizer, Novartis and Procter and Gamble, among others.

Venezuela's representative for the Ibero-American Network of Positive Psychology and International Positive Psychology.

Co-authored five books.

She has developed her work in various contexts, such as new theories of positive psychology and how these bring a more peaceful coexistence with us and therefore with society.

Urban architect with international experience in urban planning, transport Systems and urban regeneration project management.

Since 2014, Juan works as an independent consultant, providing advice on urban transformation projects (management and planning) to public and private clients in México, Spain and Italy.

Juan works as a teacher and researcher at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey and is an adjunct Professor of the subject "Urban Development and Land Regeneration" at the Master in Real Estate Development (MRED). He’s a member of Distrito Tec, his role is to provide advice on matters relating to urban regeneration, urban form and efficiency, and management and funding processes.

Juan Alayo has been studying cities for the last 25 years. After studies in Architecture and Urban Design and an MSc in Advanced Architectural Studies, he started his professional career as a researcher at University College London, analysing urban form and how people used it.

Then he worked at Ove Arup and Partners International for 15 years. Based at the Planning group in London, he acquired significant international experience on urban and regional planning issues, integrating transport systems and infrastructure in urban areas and developing Spatial Morphology models for a variety of cities.

After Arup, in 2005, he was invited to join Bilbao Ría 2000, a publicly owned urban regeneration company, as Development Planning Director. For the following eight years he was responsible for the planning of new development opportunities, integrating key transport infrastructures within dense urban environments, managing the interests and expectations of a diverse range of public administrations and ensuring physical, social and financial viability of the projects.

Anne is Principal of Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney and Chair of the Positive Education Schools Association (PESA).

Anne holds Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws (with honours) degrees, as well as a Graduate Diploma of Education and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in which she achieved a distinguished capstone (thesis) award, under the supervision of Professor Martin Seligman. Anne is currently completing a PhD on applying positive psychology principles in education under the supervision of Professor Lea Waters and Aaron Jarden, through the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Anne is one of the pioneers of positive education having commenced work in this area as a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship in 2004, during which she conducted research while based at Cambridge University on how to foster resilience in learning. Anne has since led the implementation of Positive Education in three schools - as Deputy Headmistress of St Catherine's in Sydney, Principal of Seymour College in Adelaide and now as Principal of Ravenswood in Sydney.

This year, Anne was one of just five educators globally (including Sir Anthony Seldon, Simon Murray, Stephen Meek and Steve Pilch), as well as the only female recipient, awarded for her pioneering work and internationally recognised leadership in the field of positive education.

In 2018, Anne was awarded the prestigious Australian Speech and Communication Association Award for Excellence, and as a young teacher, was awarded The Teachers' Guild of NSW Award for Excellence in The Early Years of Teaching (2003).

Future Possibilities for Wellbeing in Education: Emerging Trends and Transformations

David Bott is the Associate Director of the Institute of Positive Education. David helps lead one of the world’s most experienced teams dedicated to research, development and training in the field of Positive Education; applied wellbeing science.

David has been involved in training thousands of teachers from hundreds of schools around the world in designing, implementing and sustaining individual and whole-school approaches to wellbeing. David is a sought-after speaker and education consultant who works with government organisations and some of the world’s leading schools to help guide wellbeing vision and strategy.

David sits on the Dubai Future Council for Education and has published in academic journals, industry periodicals, and co-authored the book, “Teach Positive”.

David’s current role is informed by his 15 years of practical teaching experience in Australia and the UK where he held senior pastoral and academic leadership positions. David lives with his wife, son and daughter on the Corio campus of Geelong Grammar School.

Gilda Scarfe is the CEO and Founder of Positive Ed a leading and innovative educational consultancy using research to develop, implement and evaluate mental toughness, wellbeing and 21st century skills in schools through programmes design and pedagogical approaches.

She has been responsible for the organisation and implementation of the Positive Psychology/Education strategy at several grammar schools in the UK, Singapore, UAE and Thailand and has supported the strategic direction and implementation of Illuminate Education a non-profit organisation promoting Positive Education initiatives.

Gilda’s research focuses on character education, emotional intelligence in education, leading change, positive education, strategic planning in education and wellbeing education. Passionate about improving wellbeing and mental toughness in education through innovative yet simple and clear interventions, Gilda is always keen to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners in making a practical and powerful impact to the world of education.

Gilda is member of IPPA (International Positive Psychology Association), APA (American Psychology Association) and MEPA.

A highly sought-after speaker Gilda has delivered several keynotes, workshops and symposia in MENA Region, Asia, Europe and the United Kingdom on a range of topics from positive psychology and educational leadership to curriculum innovation and pedagogical development.

-Director of the University of Melbourne Centre for Positive Psychology

-Has an MBA and a Ph D in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wollongong

-He has written over 100 articles related to coaching and wellbeing

-Wrote the books: “Wellbeing, recovery and mental health” and “The handbook of the psychology of positivity and strengths-based approaches at work”.

-His research fields are the applications of wellbeing in the workplace, health and educational systems

-He's developed organisational intervention and development programmes to help the mental health services to focus more on recovery

-He's received the prize from the Vice-chancellor for excellence in research commercialisation in 2015

-Co-editor of the International Journal of Wellbeing

-Formed part of the scientific advisory panel for the Institute of Coaching at Harvard University for four years

-Is on the Collaborative Wellbeing Leadership team for the Mental Health Centre of NSW (New South Wales)

-Believes that wellbeing concerns us all

Katy Granville-Chapman and Emmie Bidston are Associate Fellows of the Oxford Character Project and co-authors of ‘Leader: know, love and inspire your people’. Katy is the co-founder of Global Social Leaders, a leadership programme which has participants in 105 countries, all passionate about creating and sustaining positive change in the world.

Katy is doing a DPhil (PhD) at Oxford University asking how leaders could improve the flourishing of those they lead; she is a research associate at the Oxford University Wellbeing Research Centre. She is a deputy headteacher and founder of the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute.

Professor Kristján Kristjánsson (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Deputy Director in the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues and Professor of Character Education and Virtue Ethics at the University of Birmingham, U.K. His interests lie in research on character and virtues at the intersection between moral philosophy, moral psychology and moral education.

He has published six books on those issues, the latest one is Flourishing as the Aim of Education (Routledge, 2020). His previous books include Aristotelian Character Education, (Routledge, 2015) which won the SES Prize for the best Education book of 2015 in the U.K., and has since been translated into Japanese, as well as Virtues and Vices in Positive Psychology (C.U.P., 2013), which has a Korean translation.

Kristján was chair of the Programme Committee for the first IPEN conference in Texas. In addition to leading a number of the Jubilee Centre’s flagship projects, Kristján oversees all research activities in the Centre. As a member of various international organisations, Kristján collaborates with colleagues in Asia, Europe and the U.S.A. on issues that relate to the cultivation of virtuous character in general and virtuous emotions in particular.

Kristján is Editor of the Journal of Moral Education.

Louise Tidmand is a Danish “pracademic” – a practitioner and an academic. Her PhD research focuses on developing life coping skills, resilience and wellbeing in adolescents through a whole school approach intervention and was completed in February 2020.

Louise is a teacher and educational psychologist, and she has devoted the past eight year to transform research into tangible educational materials for teachers, parents and students to work with in a school or home setting. Her books and games have received recommendations from the Danish National Board of Health and the Danish Board of Social Services.

Louise is passionate about connecting research to everyday lives through strength-based methods and approaches that will enable schools to develop Positive Education school cultures. Through her business The Strength Academy, she educates and trains professionals, who work with children and young adults, in social-emotional learning, strengths, wellbeing and life coping skills. As part of her PhD Louise was enrolled at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne, an experience that added an international perspective to her research. It also gave her the opportunity to visit pioneer Positive Education Schools around Australia, speak to teachers, school managements and world leading researchers about the core of Positive Education, future directions of positive psychology, and wellbeing literacy

Today Louise is associated to University of Aarhus as a PostDoc.

Enrique de la Madrid has a degree in Law of the UNAM and has a master degree in Public Administration of the Government School John F. Kennedy of Harvard University.

From 2015 to 2018 he held the position of Secretary of Tourism; from 2012 to 2015 he was the Director General of the National Bank for Foreign Trade, from 2006 to 2010, was Director General of Rural Financial; in addition to being a Federal Deputy from 2000 to 2003, and Technical General Coordinator of the Presidency of the Commission National Banking from 1994 to 1998.

In the private sector, he was Executive Chairman of the Mexican Industry Council Consumer 

Products (ConMéxico) and Director of Institutional Relations and HSBC Corporate Communication for Mexico and Latin America.

Since 2019, is the Director of the Center for the Future of Tech Cities Monterrey. He is also an articleist in the newspaper El Universal, and conducts and directs the TV show "Now/Future; Mexico and the World" of ADN 40.

Dr. Ortiz received her training at the Texas Medical Center in Houston TX, she is a general surgeon and has wide experience in research, medical translation and teaching including research fellowships in both national and International institutions such as The Multiple Sclerosis National Society and The Menninger Clinic for behavioral sciences. She is been working as an advocate for Mental Health among Health professionals since residency while doing Psychiatry rotations and work at The Ben Taub Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. She now continues to spread this work among the students in Tecmilenio and Tecnologico de Monterrey System.

Dr. Michael F. Steger is Professor of Psychology and the Director for the Center for Meaning and Purpose at Colorado State University.

He is an internationally recognized authority on the benefits of finding meaning in one’s life and in one’s work. Dr. Steger is a sought after speaker and enjoys providing keynotes, workshops, and retreats around the world on topics ranging from meaning and purpose, flourishing at work, positive education, effective leadership, and expanding clinical practice by incorporating meaning and purpose assessment and interventions.

He is the developer of the most widely-used measures of meaning and purpose in the world, including the Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Work and Meaning Inventory.

He has published his research in more than 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and three books, including Designing Positive Psychology, Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace, and the Handbook of Positivity and Strengths-Based Approaches at Work. Dr. Steger offers a number of online courses on elevating success in work and life, including his newest courses: Meaning in the Moment (https://wholebeinginstitute.com/meaning-in-the-moment/) and Mastering Your Motivation, available through www.michaelsteger.online.

Rosalinda Ballesteros Valdés is the director for the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness at Universidad Tecmilenio, considered the first Positive University.

At Tecmilenio she previously had the position of Vice-president for High School Education, she designed the Positive Education Curriculum for 28 Tecmilenio High Schools (more than 15,000 students).

Dr. Ballesteros-Valdés holds a PhD in Humanistic Studies by Tecnológico de Monterrey in México and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

She has 20 years’ experience in education and curriculum design. Dr. Ballesteros-Valdés worked extensively in peace education programs, from Education for Peace International and Peace begins with children in México.  

Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and Master’s in education by Universidad Tecmilenio, institution in which has collaborated as social science professor with high school and university students, as mentor for high school students and National Leader of the Student Well-being and Development program.

Nowadays, he works as Instructional Designer at the Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing of Universidad Tecmilenio, in which has developed diverse educational experiences and interventions for the application of positive psychology in educational and organizational settings, promoting skills and tools that help people become their best self.

His life purpose is to design learning experiences with the objective of helping people in the development of academic and wellbeing skills that help them increase their levels of wellbeing.

Dr Denise Quinlan is a director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience.

She has lectured on strengths and positive psychology around the world. As the only trainer from Australia/New Zealand selected to deliver the University of Pennsylvania’s ground breaking Penn Resiliency Programme, she has worked alongside Prof. Martin Seligman and Dr. Karen Reivich training educators at leading schools in Australia and the UK (Geelong Grammar School, St Peter’s Adelaide and Wellington College). 

Denise has worked extensively in wellbeing development in state and private education over the past decade in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. NZIWR’s strengths programmes draw on Denise’s validated strengths programme, demonstrated to enhance wellbeing, engagement and relatedness.

 As an adjunct Professor at the IE University, Madrid she has taught strengths-focused leadership to global business leaders. She has served on Committee for the International Positive Psychology Association and is an NZAPP Executive Committee Member. Her work has been published in international academic journals and edited volumes on positive psychology, wellbeing in education, and restorative practices. 

Angela Duckworth is the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive. She is also the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics.

A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.

Prior to her career in research, Angela founded a summer school for low-income children that was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and, in 2018, celebrated its 25th anniversary. She has also been a McKinsey management consultant and a math and science teacher at public schools in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

Angela completed her undergraduate degree in Advanced Studies Neurobiology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. With the support of a Marshall Scholarship, she completed an MSc with Distinction in Neuroscience from Oxford University. She completed her PhD in Psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

Angela’s TED talk is among the most-viewed of all time. Her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance is a #1 New York Times best seller. Angela is also co-host, with Stephen Dubner, of the podcast No Stupid Questions.

Santiago has a PhD in economics from the University of Santiago of Compostela; sociologist, economist and graduate in Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as PDD from the IESE of the University of Navarra.

After more than twenty-five years working in the field of leadership and people management in Spain, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and now in Mexico, he was the People Director of R, the Galician cable telecommunications Company where he developed a people management model aimed at generating higher levels of happiness in the work of collaborators by applying positive psychology. The model has been a case study for the Instituto de Empresa and the European Agency for Occupational Safety and Health, OSHA; in addition, the company was included in the list of the 50 best places to work in Europe in 2013.

He is the author of Happiness at work… and in life.

With the clear purpose of life to contribute to the formation of more humane organizations, Santiago now collaborates with Tec de Monterrey to give life to the Emerging Leadership Center where it has developed a leadership model aimed at human flourishing.

Philosopher of Science, PhD in Complexity and Integral Studies, Executive MBA, Long-term Meditator, Juggler, Singer, Professional Mental Athlete, International Soft&Strategic Skills Consultant, Integral Coach, Exponential Organization Consultant, Foresight Practitioner,…

Simone started his journey in PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT when he was 15 years old and never stopped. He thinks LIFE has an UNDENIABLE DIRECTIONALITY: increasing complexity and consciousness for a MEANINGFUL LIVING in a MULTI-PLANETARY SOCIO-CULTURAL SCENARIO.

Simone is creating the 21stcent SuperStar-Humans MOVEMENT:

people committed to wake up to meaningful life, grow up to their highest selves, clean up their biases and show up as SuperStar-Humans for the 21st cent UNPRECEDENTED TRANSITION.

Bernardo has developed his profesional career driving the improvement of urban accessibility mainly through projects, publications, interviews and events.

Since 2006, he joined to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, a non-profit organization that advises governments on projects that make people's mobility more efficient, sustainable and equitable in the cities and he coordinates the offices in México and Brasil.

In addition to a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in the National University of México. He studied a master's degree in Transportation Engineering from IHE-TU in Delft, Netherlands; and another in Management and Implementation of Development Projects in the Manchester University in United Kingdom.

He teaches at the Master's Degree in Urbanism in the UNAM and the Master´s Degree in City at the Centro University.

Emmie Bidston and Katy Granville-Chapman are Associate Fellows of the Oxford Character Project and co-authors of ‘Leader: know, love and inspire your people’.

Emmie studied Economics at the University of Cambridge before working for the UK civil service in a range of areas from education to contingency planning. She is currently head of Economics at Wellington College and Director of the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute. She co-founded a charity to help develop young leaders in Africa and runs conferences, coaching and leadership training for adults and young people.

Dominic A.A. Randolph became the sixth Head of Riverdale Country School in July 2007.

He found the Character Lab–a non-profit sponsoring “translational research” on character strengths in schools. Riverdale has helped develop with IDEO, a design thinking toolkit, the Teacher’s Guild, and the Purpose Project. He has recently started “learning design studio,” Plussed+ that works on different educational projects globally.

He has served on the boards of The Lawrenceville School, the Character Lab, International Positive Education Network (IPEN), and the Mastery Transcript Consortium.

Since joining CorStone as Chief Executive Officer in 2008, Steve Leventhal has focused on helping some of the world’s most marginalized and economically disadvantaged populations to find their personal strengths, advocate for their rights, and become agents of positive societal change.

Through Steve's passionate leadership, CorStone’s evidence-based positive psychology and resilience-based programs have reached over 100,000 youth and women living in poverty in India, Kenya, Rwanda, and the US. Steve oversees all strategic planning, global program development, external relations, and operations for the organization. During Steve’s tenure, CorStone has pioneered the development, implementation, and scale-up of some of the first resilience and positive psychology programs delivered in low and middle-income countries

Steve holds a BA in Psychology and Asian Studies from Washington University, St. Louis, MO, and an MPA with an emphasis in organizational psychology and conflict management from The Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He holds a 4th-degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido.

Steve received the Outstanding Practitioner Award at the 2019 World Congress of Positive Psychology, awarded bi-annually to a practitioner who has shown outstanding excellence and impact in advancing the practices of positive psychology in ethical and evidence-based ways.

Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute

Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.

Mykel Beorchia is Executive Director of the Office of University and Exploratory Advising at Utah State University (USU). Mykel uses compelling communication and a no-limits to cooperation approach to creating partnerships with academic advisors, student affairs, the Provost’s Office, and the academic community, ensuring advisors have resources and information to support students’ growth as learners and citizen scholars. In her previous role, she served as Director of the Academic Service Center-Quinney College of Natural Resources where she utilized Appreciative Advising to help students discover their strengths and connect them with academic programs to help them move toward their dreams, improving retention and completion rates in the college. Mykel serves on the steering committee for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Global Awards and has served on the Utah Advising Association (UAA) and NACADA Region 10 steering committees.

Andy Stalman is considered one of the world's leading Brand experts. With more than 25 years of experience, he has developed projects on five continents. His talent and charisma as well as his work and influence in the world of brands have led Andy to be known globally as “Mr. Branding". With a magnetic personality he has positioned himself in leadership positions since his youth.

He has a degree in International Relations from the University of Belgrano and a BA in Journalism from the Universidad Católica Argentina, both of Buenos Aires. He did Advanced Communication Studies at the University of Saint Joseph, Philadelphia, USA and is specialized in Marketing Direction from the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

He has held prominent C level positions in Lacoste, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 and in Multimedios América.

He is currently co-founder and CEO of TOTEM Branding, one of the most reputable Branding companies in the world.

He is the Director of the “Brandoffon Master” and guest professor in prestigious business schools and consultant for companies around the world. Andy is a regular speaker at conferences, companies and events both in Spain and in other countries in Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America and Africa, in addition to being considered one of the "100 best speakers in Spain" according to the prestigiou consultant Thinking Heads. He is also a member of the advisory council of the World Football Summit. Winner of the "Purpose" award at the Honest Awards for "honesty with users".

Jenny Bloom joined the faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology at Florida Atlantic University in August 2015. In August 2019 she was promoted to Full Professor with tenure and was named a Provost’s Fellow for the 2019-2020 academic year to coordinate Leadership and Professional Development Initiatives. In addition, she is the Coordinator of the Higher Education Leadership Master’s Degree Program. Jenny founded the Office of Appreciative Education https://www.fau.edu/education/centersandprograms/oae/) at FAU in 2015.

Jenny is a co-founder of the Appreciative Advising and Appreciative Education movements. She served as the 2007-08 President of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and was named the recipient of NACADA’s Virginia N. Gordon Award for Excellence in the Field of Advising in 2017. She has co-authored six books and numerous articles and has presented her work at over 350 higher education institutions and conferences.

Founder & President of the World Happiness Foundation and World Happiness Fest. Author of Happytalism and The Exponentials of Happiness. Director of the Gross Global Happiness program at the United Nations University for Peace.

Luis Gallardo is a social innovator and entrepreneur with the higher purpose of elevating the vibration of the planet by developing ideas, connecting thought leaders, activists and communities and increasing awareness on the science of happiness, holistic education and smart innovation.

Over the years Luis has been an advisor to CEOs, thought leaders, entrepreneurs, Nobel Laureates, political and institutional game changers on strategic personal positioning and brand building. That access to the brightest and most conscious individuals has inspired him to understand that the world needs new lenses to realize growth and how humans and societies can thrive.

Luis has worked too in the corporate world as a global executive and has been a protagonist of the transformation of industries such as professional services and the internet. Luis has been an international observer with the UN and OSCE in post-armed conflicts establishing democracy and the right to vote.

For Luis Happiness is a human right and a life choice, an enabler of human development and social innovation. That’s why he is committed to creating, with initiatives such as bē and the World Happiness Foundation and World Happiness Fest, spaces for academics, activists, social innovators, scientists, governmental leaders, institutions and leaders, in general, to share and learn, to feel, understand and act towards a happier world and thriving societies.

CEO R Systems

Satinder Singh Rekhi is Chief executive officer of R Systems, a software product engineering listed public company in India.

Having graduated from the prestigious IIT – Kharagpur (India) with a bachelor’s degree in technology, Rekhi also possesses an MBA degree from the California State University (USA), and has attended several leadership programs from the University of Berkeley and Harvard Business School.

Rekhi is a champion in teaching and spreading Happiness and Well- Being and strongly believes in a simple motto – Happy People Are More Successful. In fact, Mr. Rekhi is known for partnering with premier educational institutions by partnering with them in preaching the Science of Happiness, where the primary objective is to teach  the importance of happiness – to enable them to be happier, and in turn be more successful. He has sponsored teaching research and studies in the Science of Happiness in California State University, Sacramento and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Raúl specialized in Commercial Management in ICADE (Spain).

He subsequently completed different management improvement programs: PDD for IESE, IMS for La Salle University in Philadelphia (PA) USA, and PADE (Business Senior Management Program) in Barna Management School.

He has developed his professional career in different service companies. He started in Iberia's financial area, then moved to Bankinter, where he held various management positions over 20 years, he was Director of Corporate Relations at Barna Management School, one of the most prestigious business schools in the Caribean área and later Corporate Director of HR and Communication.

As a consultant he combines the management of the firms ‘Dpersonas consultores’ and People Development Consultants with his activity as a speaker and teacher in Business Schools in different cities of the USA, LATAM and Spain. He was a member of the CSBM-IESE Strategy Committee and is certified as an Executive Coach of the International Coach Federation (ICF). He is an expert in Storytelling, he has become a benchmark in this discipline, and regularly gives training at the Inter-American Center for Political Management in Miami.

He is the author of “Eleven” (Morlis Libros, 2019), “La Puerta Abierta” (LID Editorial, 2011) and “Tiempo para Decidir” (Empresa Activa, 2009). He has published numerous articles in specialized media, and on the dpersonas.com blog.

-Founding member of Henco Global and Chairman of the Board of the WPO

-Studied at Harvard Business School and the Adizes Institute

-London Business School recognised him as a prominent entrepreneur in 2010

-Member and advisor to various national and international companies

-For seven consecutive years, his company Henco Global has been considered the Best Logistics Company to work for in Mexico by the Great Place to Work institute.

-Speaker at various conferences of renowned universities in Mexico and abroad (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, LBS, MIT, Harvard, USC, etc.)

-London Business School carried out a case study on his strategic business skills, which forms part of the Master’s programme at the university, considered by the Financial Times to be one of the best in the world for its MBA.

-Ernst & Young named him Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013 and 2014.

-His life philosophy: “There’s no real success without happiness. And to be happy, it's enough to just be happy”.

Joe Murray, MSHR, is currently the Assistant Dean; Undergraduate Studies, University Advising Services at Florida Atlantic University. Prior to joining the FAU team, Joe served as the Director for Academic Advising and Retention Services at Miami (OH) University’s Hamilton Campus for 22 years.  He has served as the Co-Chair of the First-Generation College Student Interest Group for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) from 2007 until 2012.

He has helped to develop and refine the Appreciative Advising Inventory and has been part of a national task force aimed at advancing the concept of Appreciative Advising. In addition to teaching the Appreciative model to professional and faculty advisors, Joe has provided multiple training workshops and retreats to deliver the model from a customer service and employee management perspective.

Joe has adopted the framework to all offices across campus. Examples include Financial Aid, Admissions, Registration, Student Recruitment, International Student Services, Residence Life including the student RA’s, Library support personnel, Disability Services, Student Ambassadors and other student groups, Testing, Career services, and Student Life. Most recently, he served on the faculty for the 2011- 2020 Appreciative Advising Institutes. He is a certified Appreciative Adviser.

Joe works tirelessly to help students that are traditionally underrepresented in higher education. He co-founded Ohio Reach and now, Florida Reach, state and national efforts to increase access and retention to higher education Lower Income/Disadvantaged Youth and Foster Care Alumni.

Alberto Pérez Arroyo studied the career of Computer Systems Engineer at Tecnológico de Monterrey. Upon graduation, he served as Software Engineer and Operations Director at Grupo CAPSI and BIT Technologies.

He is a founding professor of Universidad Tecmilenio Campus Toluca in 2005, appointed Director of Professional of the same campus in 2011, where he also served as Director of Marketing. He took the position of General Director of the Cuernavaca Campus in 2012. Since 2014 he has been the National Director of Mentoring where he has designed support programs for more than 40 thousand high school and university students.

In 2013, he graduated from the Master of Administration with a Specialty in Marketing at Tecmilenio University and in 2018 he completed the Master of Positive Leadership at the Institute of Happiness Sciences of Tecmilenio University, where he also had the opportunity to direct the program.

Alberto has been able to apply his knowledge about Positive Psychology, Positive Leadership and Positive Organizations, teaching certificates, courses, and giving conferences for Human Resources groups such as AERI and companies such as Robert Bosch, BBVA among many others.

His life purpose is to apply his creativity, leadership and perseverance to design strategies that allow people to find their best self and flourish together as a society.

He is an Industrial and Systems Engineer from ITESM, consultant companies for more than 15 years, both in Mexico and in the Foreign.

He has a Master's Degree in Positive Leadership from the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness of Tecmilenio University and certifications as Business Coach and High Performance Teams, Coaching with Psychology Positive and Strengths of Character Wholebeing Institute, Science of Happiness at Work Greater Good Science (Institute of Berkeley) and Dale Carnegie Training ®, and others.

He has been a guest speaker in international forums such as Happiness 360 and Gross Global Happiness performs as Happiness Speaker, Coach and Wellness Consultant Business.

John J. Ratey, MD, is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles, and 11 books published in 15 languages, including the ground breaking ADHD “Driven to Distraction” series with Ned Hallowell, MD.

With the publication of "Spark:The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain", Dr. Ratey has established himself as one of the world's foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection. His latest book, “Go Wild”, explores how we can achieve optimal physical and mental health by getting in touch with our caveman roots, and how we can “re-wild” our lives.

-Empowerment & leadership booster coach

-Former corporate executive and businesswoman

-Co-founder of Womanthon, a movement born to achieve equality between men and women in all areas. With a strategy focused on encouraging women to lead without permission

-Teacher, speaker and lecturer

Sandra changed her near-death experience into a driving force to understand how to choose happiness. She got the Chief Happiness Officer Certificate from the International University of Florida, in the United States, and gives lectures, spreads her knowledge in company’s , also in public services. Her social work with Children with multiple amputations  and serious diseases make a difference in life of tausend s of people. She uses indeed social media for social good. 

Sandra Teschner is a publisher, businesswoman, social entrepreneur, author, speaker on topics such as self-esteem, diversity, sustainability, social Midia and happiness as an umbrella, Certified by FIU (Florida International university) & Wohasu, Miami. Sandra also graduated in business administration in Brazil, and tourism in Germany where she worked for a decade.

Author of 22 steps to happiness , she Created  Plantando Happiness (Planting Happiness), an event she held in 2019 had an expressive number of visitors. During 13 days, 73 thousand people attended, in which 5,700 left testimonials of what makes them Happy and experienced situations in spaces specially built to make her proposal of How to be intentionally Happy,  tangible.

Dr. Elke Paul is an international education consultant, trainer and speaker. She holds a PhD in Comparative Education, a university degree (Diplom) in Social Pedagogy, and certification in Positive Psychology. She represents IPEN in Germany and is Head of Positive Education within the German PP Association. Dr. Paul has lived and worked in Europe, USA, Asia and Australia and has gained deep insight into the landscape of school development challenges.

As founder of a Yoga studio, she experienced the mental health needs of young people firsthand. Over the last three years, she implemented Positive Education transformations with schools in Asia and Germany. Committed to human advancement, Dr. Paul is currently launching a startup with an interdisciplinary team, to realize the Positive Education vision at scale.

Hector Escamilla is Vice President of Development at Tecnologico de Monterrey University, a private non-for-profit university system in Mexico. He served for almost 11 years as President of Tecmilenio University, Mexico, focused on providing the highest return on investment in education that translated into high employment rates and enhanced student wellbeing, happiness and purpose in life. He led a team that initiated a disruptive innovation process developing a vision that embraces wellbeing for students, faculty and administrators based on the science of Positive Psychology. Martin Seligman recognized Tecmilenio University as the first Positive University in the world.

He has held positions as professor, chairman, dean of extension and President of the Tecnologico de Monterrey University Campus San Luis Potosí. He has a BS in Plant Science from Tecnologico de Monterrey, a M.Sc. from Michigan State University and a PhD from Texas A&M University. He is member of the Board of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN).

Miguel Ángel is an entrepreneur, consultant, coach, lecturer and designer. He has successfully worked with executives from different organizations in Mexico and South America. As a coach Miguel incorporates principles derived from lateral thinking, conversational skills, talent discovery and strengths, Neurolinguistic programming, negotiation strategies, active listening and conflict resolution and integration. His fields of expertise include creativity, lateral thinking, and team integration, collaborative leadership and creating mystique in the teams.

He was formed in an area that combines the creative and the practical. He studied Industrial Design in Copenhagen, Denmark, ceramics at Labisbal and Manises in Spain, holds a Master's Degree in Human Development. Professor of Organizational Development for ITAM. Adviser to the Seeds of Life Foundation, Advisor and Board Member of the Foundation for Forgiveness and Reconciliation of Tecnológico de Monterrey.

He has given workshops and seminars in educational, social and corporate institutions of México, Latin America and Spain of Peace Culture in Organizations, Creativity, Communication, Leadership, Mindfulness and more.

Founding Director, UPEACE Centre for Executive Education

Mohit is an innovator in the learning and development area, with nearly two decades of experience working with professionals from around the world in the areas of innovation, leadership, and well-being.  Since 2006, he has been leading the Centre for Executive Education at the University for Peace, established by the United Nations.

Mohit’s background includes management consulting with A.T. Kearney, working with a global non-profit with a focus on sustainable development, leading a private-public partnership, and starting a profitable education enterprise. Mohit is also committed to youth entrepreneurship and recently authored a handbook for social innovators.  

Mohit has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and did his Master’s at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He was born in Greece to Indian parents and currently resides in South Florida.

Humberto Charles-Leija PhD is Researcher of the Institute of Wellbeing and Happiness at Universidad Tecmilenio in Monterrey, Mexico. Humberto is a member of the National System of Researchers (S.N.I. in Spanish) in Mexico. His research focuses on subjective well-being and wellbeing education. Humberto has published more than 10 research papers in countries like Australia, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. Humberto has participated as speaker in three editions of Conference of International Society of Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) in Phoenix, United States, Seoul, Korea and Innsbruck, Austria. Humberto is part of the “Technical Group Specialized in Measuring Income and Well-being” (GTMIB in Spanish), of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI in Spanish), in Mexico. GTMIB is in charge of development of new indicator to measure income and well-being in national statistics in Mexico.

Professor at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas

Raj is a professor of Marketing at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, where he relies on themes from psychology, behaviorial science, decision theory and marketing to explain consumption behaviour. He also studies the impact that people’s judgments and decisions have on their own happiness and fulfilment.

Based on his research, he teaches a very successful online course on Coursera on Happiness (named A Life of Happiness And Fulfillment). His book (titled, If you’re so smart, why aren’t you happy?) was released in the US, UK, and India in 2016.

Father Leonel Narváez Gomez, born in Colombia in 1950, is a Consolata Missionary Priest, and a Sociologist.

After working with Nomadic Tribes in Africa, he returned to his country to do peace work with hardened left wing guerrillas – FARC – during which time he realized that something was missing from conflict resolution theory: the importance of forgiveness. Together with colleagues from Harvard University, he developed the concept of the Schools of Forgiveness and Reconciliation (ESPERE, for its acronym in Spanish) where those who have been victim of violence learn how to forgive and use pro-social behavior to resolve inter-personal conflicts.

ESPERE helps victims of violence transform their negative memories, generate new narratives and break free of the past in order to project their lives into the future. Over 82,000 people have been trained by ESPERE and are part of an international network spanning Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile, Venezuela, the U.S, Canada, Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay

Father Narváez has Postgraduate Degrees from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He won the UNESCO Peace Education Prize- Special Mention in 2006, and in 2007 received the Order of Democracy by the Congress of the Republica of Colombia for his reconciliation efforts.

Fr. Narvaez Gomez is author of Cultura Política de Perdón y Reconciliación, 2009 and The Political Culture of Forgiveness and Reconciliation, 2010, and La Rivoluzione del Perdono, 2010.

Deputy HR Head - TCS Latin America

Almost 2 decades of experience in Human Resources in strategic and organizational development. Travelled across the continents and have worked with various cultures and diverse workforce.

Has passion for leadership mentoring and coaching. Empathy and wellbeing are the core beliefs on which Ashul has been building the talent across.

Organizational Consultant / Developer of Leadership and Teams / International Speaker.

Conscious Leadership Developer, agile teams and cultural/digital transformation for the creation of innovative, collaborative and effective ecosystems in Chile, Argentina and Mexico.

Vice President of ACCOP (Asociación Chilena de Coaching Ontológico Profesional). Executive and teams coaching; education and training facilitator at Falabella S.A.

Docent in continuous training at Universidad del Desarrollo de Chile.

Mentor at Conscious Business Coaching Certification Program.

Conscious Leadership Center Consultant at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

My name is Emma Giner and I am an expert in creating multicultural teams in VUCA environments. I’ve been gaining experience for more than 20 years in top level fashion companies.

I started in Mango in 1996 working directly in the field, as an International Trainer, where I contributed to the brand’s development in Asia and Europe. In 2001 I joined the Inditex Group, where I was working in different positions: as Learning & Development Manager for Oysho and Massimo Dutti, as Corporate Global Development Director for the whole group (based in Arteixo’s head office) and, from 2009 to 2016, for Massimo Dutti as International HR Director.

I have had the honour of implementing successful, high-impact projects together with my team (practically family!) made of up to 20 different nationalities in cities such as Shanghai, Moscow, New York, Paris, Dubai, Mexico City, London and New Delhi.In 2016 I launched my own project as a People & Organisation Shaker.

I believe in a HR department that is as sexy as marketing and as agile as Scrum, which is part of the business operations, not just a back office team. I work together with organisations and their teams to help them positively shake up their status quo, empower their talent, make structures more agile and achieve extraordinary results.

MBA Master in Business Administration: ITESM

Graduated in Psychology with an MBA in Business Administration by ITESM. Human Resources Director for DIADI Group, with experience of more than 10 years.

Consultant and facilitator in the design and delivery of training programs for executives and managers, middle managers, and team leaders. Within her career as a Consultant, she has participated in processes of organizational change and the management of programs for the development of leadership skills and the accelerated growth of High Potentials.

Patricia Zelaya has more than 20 years experience in Human Capital focused on Organizational Development, Training and Talent Attraction.

She has a degree in Organizational Psychology from TEC de Monterrey, a business coach certified by The London Institute in association with Ideah Coaching, Innovation and Creative Problem Solving Certification by PIENSA and is a Green Belt in Six Sigma methodology.

She has worked in leading companies in their sectors, such as Johnson Controls, Manpower Group, Danone, Nestlé and currently works as Organizational Development Manager for Kekén (DESC Group).

I am a specialist executive in H.R. with over 30 years of experience, I have had the opportunity to work for national and international businesses in different sectors of economy, such as Manufacturing (Automotive, Plastics and Steels), Agroindustry, Media and Services.

· Degree in Business in Administration at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
· H.R. Master at Universidad LA SALLE
· Executive Program at IPADE
· Executive Program at INSEAD (Paris)
·Certification in TALENT MANAGEMENT at North Carolina University (USA)
·Certification COACH at EFIC (Barcelona)

B.Cs. Mgmt., M.A., PhD Innovation and Educational Technology

More than 20 years’ experience in Higher Education. Serves as Academic VP for Universidad Tecmilenio since 2011, where he designs the experience for more than 60,000 students to help them develop their purpose in life and competencies to achieve it.

Luis leads projects in Educational Innovation, designing programs related to innovation in Competence Based Learning, and is fully involved in the design of Tecmilenio’s wellbeing and happiness ecosystem.

Luis leads projects in Educational Innovation, designing programs related to innovation in Competence Based Learning, and is fully involved in the design of Tecmilenio’s wellbeing and happiness ecosystem.

He is certified in Positive Psychology and Positive Organizations. An innovator, passionate about education and family oriented person. He believes that is possible to transform a country through education and works every day with that in mind.

Managing Director - Volkswagen Group Services Mexico SA de CV
Leader People Strategy - Volkswagen de México SA de CV

Oliver holds a master degree in Positive Leadership (Instituto de Ciencias de Felicidad, Mexico). He also possesses a university degree in education and studied physics at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. Additionally he is a certified Coach (Tec de Monterrey, Neurosemantica and Metacoaching) and completed postgraduate studies at the European School of Management in Germany (ESMT) and at IPADE (Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa) in Mexico.

Currently Oliver is managing director of Volkswagen Group Services Mexico and additionally leader of the implementation of the people strategy for more than 14.000 coworkers of Volkswagen de México. He has more than 20 years of leadership and management experience leading teams of different sizes up to 2000 employees within different industries (Automotive, Finance, Consulting and Education).

Since 2003, he is Coach and Trainer for all levels of leaders and Managers, from coordinators to board members. During his career jointly with his teams, he has won several prizes. (For example:Education Award of the Volkswagen Group, National Labor Award of the Mexican Federal Government).

Oliver’s passion is inspiring people, teams and organizations to create wellbeing for themselves, their families, their organizations and the society.

Carlos is an experienced talent management expert, entrepreneur, and a natural igniter development coach.

He expertly brings his global multi-industry mindset to support insights and new ideas in his coaching work with individuals and teams.

Dra. Paloma Fuentes González

Specialist in Occupational Medicine and Legal-Forensic Psychiatric. Master in Neuro Happiness. Expert in Neuroscience and Positive Psychology. Expert in Emotional Ecology.

Currently is a Happiness Manager at MAHOU-SAN MIGUEL, creator of HAPPYNET Model for Individual Neuro Happiness and Organizations.

Coordinator of Happiness Organization Group at the Asociación Española de Médicos del Trabajo. First Happiness manager on España.

Dr. Karen Reivich is the Director of Training Programs for the Penn Positive Psychology Center. She is the lead instructor and curriculum developer for the Penn Resilience Programs. Dr. Reivich is also an instructor in the Penn Master of Applied Positive Psychology program (MAPP). She has a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Reivich is a leading expert in the fields of resilience, depression prevention and Positive Psychology. She has extensive experience in the science and training of resilience and Positive Psychology principles.

She has co-authored two books on resilience and optimism, has published extensively in peer reviewed scholarly journals, and edited books in the areas of Positive Psychology and resilience. Dr. Reivich has more than 25 years of experience developing and delivering resilience and Positive Psychology programs to educators. She has been the lead instructor for more than 200 Penn Resilience Programs that have included approximately 10,000 people.

She has supervised the delivery of more than 300 Penn Resilience Programs to numerous organizations, including schools, the U.S. Army, and a professional sports organization.

President of The Growth Management® Science Company New York Award Management Speaker. International Consultant & Coach

-Psychologist (Cum Laude Award) and Bachelor of Education, mention in Educational Sciences and Technologies (Maximum Qualification Award). Master’s in educational psychology. Currently studying his Doctorate in Educational Sciences.
-Director of research projects at Jóvenes Fuertes Uruguay.
-University professor with experience in different educational environments, b-learning, e-learning and in non-formal education training spaces, with national and international experience.
-Scientific researcher accredited by National Research Systems, with productions in author and co-author mode of articles in specialized peer-reviewed journals indexed in: WoS; Latindex; Scopus; Scielo; and others.
-Coordinator of funded and unfunded research projects in the following lines: a) Character, emotional and well-being education; b) Psychological well-being in educational / organizational contexts.
-Speaker and lecturer in national and international events, author and co-author of several books, research articles and essays in national and international peer-reviewed scientific journals in the area of Education and Psychology.
-Member of different scientific associations in positive psychology and education (IPPA; SOVEPPOS).
-Advisor to research and intervention projects aimed at promoting mental health in educational context

Founder and CEO of Family Bonds, The Positive Parenting Institute.

Lorena has a Master in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in marketing and psychology from the same institution, she has a specialization in cognitive & emotional development of children, with a special interest in epigenetics, neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology applied to families.

She has advised first time mothers for more than 10 years and was the first instructor of the Positive Psychology Certificate of the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness in Mexico City.

She is the author of an innovative positive parenting program based on science, with the purpose of helping families be happier, loving, compassionate, grateful, resilient, and connected. This ambitious program gives parents resources to be used in each of the developmental stages of their children while providing them with effective tools to increase their wellbeing and that of their families.

Pioneer in studying and applying positive parenting in Latin America, Lorena currently develops and teaches positive parenting programs for parents, schools, and organizations in México. She created the first diploma course in positive parenting in Mexico with the objective of empowering parents to have a flourishing life.

Lorena is a firm believer that we have to “be the change we want to see in the world”, starting in our homes and that through sowing seeds of love, compassion and kindness in families we could create a positive ripple effect that could benefit our society and hopefully the world.

Art upon the city

The work of Ale de la Puente is explore the notions of time through poetizing the experiences giving by the space, from a technology, scientific, philosophy, even linguistic approach. Ale de la Puente have been member of Sistema Nacional de Creadores (FONCA).

She earned an honorable mention at Collide@CERN Ars Electronica, Austria (2013), and she has received several national and international recognitions such as The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the Premio de Adquisicioìn Fundacioìn SIVAM Artes Visuales.

Lorena is an industrial and systems engineer. Master degree in strategic prospective by Tecnologico de Monterrey. Her training includes studies in France (Grenoble) and Sweden (Estocolmo), as well as training programs at Bilbao, Barcelona, Boston and New York.

Has led projects and planning and strategic action programs in private, public and social areas. Certified as Senior Ontological Coach by Newfield Consulting. She is a Distrito Tec Manager.

Lorena is an intrapreneur who has devoted her life to corporate social responsibility, social investment, next-gen leadership and human rights. After leading the social responsibility of Cinépolis and Fundación Cinépolis for +14 years, where she designed multiple high-impact social programs, benefiting thousands of people in vulnerable situation, Lorena joined FEMSA Foundation as Executive Director on April 2020.

Lorena holds a degree in industrial and systems engineering and a master’s degree in public policy and administration from the Tech of Monterrey, as well as studies at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School, and INSEAD. Lorena is member of the Global Philanthropist Circle and Nexus Global Youth Summit; serves as Board member at the US-Mexico Foundation and at the Advisory Boards of the Tech of Monterrey, Pacto por la Primera Infancia, Unreasonable Institute Mexico and Fundación Ramón Vargas.

She is a 2019-2020 Fellow at the International Women´s Forum and is joining by nomination the League of Intrapreneurs (Generation 2020). She has been recognized Rising Talent by the Women´s Forum (Paris, 2017), Intrapreneur of the Year by Universidad Anáhuac (Mexico, 2015), and one of the 50 and 100 most influential women in Mexico by Forbes Magazine (Mexico, 2016-2018).

Luby Springall is an architect from Universidad Iberoamericana de México and plastic artist with postgraduate studies at Royal College of Art in London

In 1987 she began her teaching activity in Architecture in the project cycle of the Universidad Iberoamericana and from 2007 to 2011 she coordinated a vertical workshop within the same cycle.

In 2004 she founded Gaeta-Springall Arquitectos and the editorial and architecture magazine ELARQA MX.

Architect. He has a Ph.D in the program of analysis, representation and planning of the territory for Universidad de Oviedo en España. He has been an academic at the Universidad de Guadalajara, ITESO and Tecnologico de Monterrey.

He is currently associate dean of research, postgraduate studies and continuing education for the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura Arte y Diseño.

Has been guest professor at the Universidad de Chile, Universidad Diego Portales and the Universidad San Sebastian at Santiago de Chile. As well as in the master´s degrees in sustainable mobility from the Universidad Ibero at Mexico City and Urban and environmental processes at Urbam Eafit at Medellin.

He currently coordinate the New Urban Agenda program with ONU habitat and the metropolitan landscape which is offered with the landscape urbanism program of the London Architectural Association, UK.

Alexa Moreno is renowned artistic gymnast in the elite category, specializing in horse jumping.

With only 25 years she has achieved valuable sporting records, In 2016 she obtained first place in house jumping. Becoming the only Mexican to qualify to represent Mexico in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the Preolimpic.

In 2018 she won a gold medal in horse jumping and a bronze medal in the balance beam, in the National Championship in Mexico. While at the Toyota Cup in Tokyo, Japan, she won the gold medal in horse jumping.

Ana Fernanda Hierro Barba. Is a political science from the Tecnologico de Monterrey and Master degree in administration and public policy from Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE).

Has a city policies and quality of life specialization from Instituto de Estudios Politicos de Paris-Sciences Po. She has more than 10 years’ experience working for goverments, international organizations and business leaders, in research, consulting, design and regional and international projects implementation. Currently she is Public policies Director for Nuevo Leon Council.

Director General of Payment Systems & Corporate Services
Central Bank of Mexico

Lorenza Martínez is General Director of Payment Systems, and Corporate Services at the Central Bank of Mexico. From October 2008 to December 2012, she was Undersecretary of Industry and Commerce at the Ministry of Economy of Mexico, where she was in charge of the development and implementation of public policies in the areas of foreign and domestic trade and industry with the aim of increasing the productivity of the country.

From December 2006 to September 2008, she was Chief of Insurance and Pensions at the Ministry of Finance of Mexico. Among her achievements was being head of the government team in charge of transforming the pay-as-you-go pension system of government workers to a fully funded one, including the legislative reforms and their implementation. She also was in charge of the development of the catastrophic risk management strategy of the federal government.

Before that she was Director of Economic Studies of Banco de México and economic professor at ITAM. Her publications and areas of research include the effects of inflation 13 on income distribution, the importance of property rights on the development of the financial system and economic growth, monetary policy and the transmission mechanism in Mexico, the structure of corporate debt of Mexican public firms, among others.

Lorenza earned her Ph.D. degree in economics at MIT.

Payments, Finance & Risks Lead en Accenture México

She has a degree in Communication from Universidad Iberoamericana; Postgraduate as a Specialist in Practical Applications of Positive Psychology from Jaume I University, in Spain. Appreciative Coaching Specialist by the IDEIA Institute of Barcelona. Certified International Teacher in Laughter Yoga, trained by the creator of the method, Dr. Madan Kataria.

She has a training of more than 19 years in ​​human development and psychology. More than 11,000 thousand people of all ages have participated in her workshops, courses and keynotes in schools, companies and other groups. She has collaborated with companies in the textile, computer, industrial and automotive industries, aimed at operational, administrative and executive personnel.

Lecturer at corporate events on topics of the science of happiness applied to personal and organizational life.

It favors the integration and alignment of work teams with different methodologies, as well as the realization of positive diagnoses and interventions in organizations and training of managers in psychological well-being skills.

Member of International Positive Psychology Association and the International Positive Education Network, she is the founder of the community of emotional support through humor and laughter in Puebla, Mexico; and is a trainer of new leaders of laughter endorsed by Laughter Yoga University.

She has a degree in Communication from Universidad Iberoamericana; Postgraduate as a Specialist in Practical Applications of Positive Psychology from Jaume I University, in Spain. Appreciative Coaching Specialist by the IDEIA Institute of Barcelona. Certified International Teacher in Laughter Yoga, trained by the creator of the method, Dr. Madan Kataria.

She has a training of more than 19 years in ​​human development and psychology. More than 11,000 thousand people of all ages have participated in her workshops, courses and keynotes in schools, companies and other groups. She has collaborated with companies in the textile, computer, industrial and automotive industries, aimed at operational, administrative and executive personnel.

Lecturer at corporate events on topics of the science of happiness applied to personal and organizational life.

It favors the integration and alignment of work teams with different methodologies, as well as the realization of positive diagnoses and interventions in organizations and training of managers in psychological well-being skills.

Member of International Positive Psychology Association and the International Positive Education Network, she is the founder of the community of emotional support through humor and laughter in Puebla, Mexico; and is a trainer of new leaders of laughter endorsed by Laughter Yoga University.

Martha joined CEMEX 25 years ago and is currently Global Director of Responsible Business at CEMEX and Director of CEMEX-Tec Center for Sustainable Communities.

She is also President of the Mexican UN Global Compact network, Co-chair of Arise Global and President of the ARISE Network from UNDRR in Mexico. Also is president of NEO Nuevo Leon (Multisectoral Alliance for the employability of youth in Latin America), RedEAmerica in Latin America (Network that promotes development of sustainable communities in Latin America) and President of the Human Development Committee of the state of Nuevo Leon Council.

Throughout her career, she has developed alliances and led programs that have positively impacted more than 17.6 million people globally through the creation of shared value and the improvement of well-being and quality of life in different communities around the world. The programs impacts have been acknowledged and awarded by the United Nations (UN), HABITAT, Mexican Stock Exchange (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores), Organization of American States (OAS), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The Mexican Centre of Philanthropy (CEMEFI), The Confederation of Industrial Chambers (CONCAMIN), FORTUNE among others, showing a responsible business culture as a key part of the business strategy, creating shared value and improving well-being and quality of life in different communities around the world.

Martha has a strong academic background on government, public policy, and social development, with professional experience in both the public and private sector. She graduated with honors from the first generation of International Studies from Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM). She obtained two scholarships to study a Masters in Political Science, with a specialty in Comparative Politics of Developing Countries at McGill University of Montreal, Canada, and a multinational MBA (Masters in Business Administration) with a dual-degree program from Adolfo Ibáñez University in Miami and Deusto School of Business in Bilbao, Spain.

Martha continued to pursue her love for learning through executive education programs, such as the International Business Executive Program of the Stanford University in the United States, INSEAD (France) and Tec de Monterrey (Mexico); a Diplomate in Senior Business Management Development Program (D-1) from the Pan-American Institute of Senior Management (IPADE), and was certified in Community Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility by the Center for Corporate Citizenship of Boston College, as well as certified courses in Communication and Political Analysis at “Tec de Monterrey”, Institutional Foundations from UDEM, Foundations Development from RedEAmerica, Self-management Leadership by Oxford Leadership; Social and Environmental Risk Management and Stakeholder Managing Course by Intelligent Social Investment, amongst others.

Being a social and inclusive activist, passionate about social innovation and a firm believer in the creation of strategic alliances. Martha has led the establishment of more than 500 global active partnerships with governments, academy, multilaterals, NGOs, citizens and companies. She is a tireless fighter for the empowerment of women and youth.

She participates in 30 councils of the private and public sector, civil society and academia. She has been recognized for more than 10 years by the most influential publishers as one of the most prominent business leaders in Mexico such as Expansión and FORBES. She has received recognitions such as are the “Leading Women Awards” by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in Switzerland, for being one of the 10 Women Leaders in the business world that contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. The “Social Leader award” by Premios Compartir Mexico, the Stevie Awards for innovation and executive of the year in New York, “Flama, Vida y Mujer Award” by the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. “STEP AHEAD Award” to outstanding women in the Industry by the Manufacturing Institute in Washington and the “Ramón Mullerat Prize 2018” by the Corresponsables Foundation, which highlights the best CSR, sustainability and communication initiatives in Ibero-America. As well, she received Milenio Talent Awards – for her talent Path (2019), finalist for the Business Leader category in the 10th Responsible Business Awards 2019 of Ethical Corporation (2019) and Tec Woman Award 2020 in Career Category (2020).

She also has the 2009 Corporate Habitat Business Award, WBDA 2010, Juscelino Kubitschek Award, Social Investment Pioneer Awards 2012, Gold Quill Award - international award for crisis management system (2013) and the Best Business Citizen of the Americas Award (CCA Award)

Expansion and Forbes Magazine have acknowledged Martha among the top 100 most powerful women in business in Mexico over 10 years in a row. El Norte newspaper highlighted her social trajectory in the 6th edition of "Perfiles e Historias" anthologies, CEMEFI named as one of the 10 women of relevance in Corporate Social Responsibility, as she has been named as one of the 10 most important women in the construction industry in Mexico according to Obras Magazine. In 2013, she was recognized by Mundo Ejecutivo as the Executive Woman of the Year for her commitment to Social Development in Mexico.

She is an architect from Tecnológico de Monterrey where she focused her career in urbanism and today coordinates the public art and experience program at Distrito Tec. She has dedicated her professional career in trying to visualize women in different professional fields and transforming the reality at the intersection of public space, art, people and the city.

Dennis plays a leading role in the planning and urban design practice of Sasaki. His 30 years of both national and international experience encompass diverse project types including urban districts, new communities, campus environments, waterfronts, and urban regeneration.

Through his design practice, Dennis focuses on strategic thinking and creating value for clients. He approaches his urban design work collaboratively, integrating landscape, planning, and architecture with a critical understanding of the forces that shape contemporary cities.

Educated at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Master of Architecture in Urban Design, with Distinction, Thesis Prize) and the University of Toronto School of Architecture (Bachelor of Architecture, with Honors, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Medal), Dennis speaks regularly at conferences and academic institutions and has participated on several international design competition juries.

At the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dennis has taught a studio focused on the Boston Innovation District and in 2018, he taught in the Elements of Urban Design Studio.

Dennis leads remarkable teams that have been honored with more than 70 design awards, including national recognition from the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Society for College and University Planning. Dennis has been inducted as an honorary member of ASLA—a title bestowed upon only a handful of professionals nationwide. Dennis also served as the youngest president of Sasaki from 2004 until 2011.

Ana Lorena Gonzales.- Architect (2002) and Master degree in urban and territorial development (2009). She has 18 years of professional experience started at design, construction and the academy, her greatest passion and professional development has focused on urban planning and social impact projects. Currently she is the National Leader in Architecture and design at Tec de Monterrey.

Stephanie’s passion for holistic well-being started with an interest in meditation, after years of work in corporate professional development, that led her to study with some of the world’s most renowned teachers like Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Sharon Salzberg, and Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche. Stephanie is inspired to bring mindfulness practice to as many people as possible and does this through her work as a trainer with Healthy Minds Innovations and as a facilitator with a global meditation community.

Stephanie is an accredited health and well-being coach (NBC-HWC), meditation teacher, group fitness instructor (NETA-CGEI), and wellness educator with a master’s degree in Integrative Health and Well-Being Coaching from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing.

Architect from Tecnológico de Monterrey, He is YYY founding partner studio and professor at Escuela de Arquitectura, Arte y Diseño del Tecnológico de Monterrey, where he teaches the collective housing workshop, Intra-urban housing program and infonavit program.

Degree in administration, a postgraduate in sales management and a leadership program for Stanford University.

He is leader for corporate business from talent solutions division at Linkedin Hispanoamerica.

He has 20 years’ experience on technology and innovation companies. He had occupied diverse charges in business development areas and customer relationship in America Latina.