Few presidents have walked a more improbable path to the White House.  Born in Hawaii to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, Obama was raised with help from his grandparents, whose generosity of spirit reflected their Midwestern roots.  The homespun values they instilled in him, paired with his innate sense of optimism, compelled Obama to devote his life to giving every child, regardless of his or her background, the same chance America gave him.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.  That experience honed his belief in the power of uniting ordinary people around a politics of purpose, in the hard work of citizenship, to bring about positive change.  In law school, he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, then he returned to Illinois to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago and begin a career in public service, winning seats in the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate.

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States, winning more votes than any candidate in history.  He took office at a moment of crisis unlike any America had seen in decades – a nation at war, a planet in peril, the American Dream itself threatened by the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression.  And yet, despite all manner of political obstruction, Obama’s leadership helped rescue the economy, revitalize the American auto industry, reform the health care system to cover another twenty million Americans, and put the country on a firm course to a clean energy future – all while overseeing the longest stretch of job creation in American history.  On the world stage, Obama’s belief in America’s indispensable leadership and strong, principled diplomacy helped wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, decimate al Qaeda and eliminate the world’s most wanted terrorists, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program, open up a new chapter with the people of Cuba, and unite humanity in coordinated action to combat a changing climate.

In times of great challenge and change, President Obama’s leadership ushered in a stronger economy, a more equal society, a nation more secure at home and more respected around the world.  The Obama years were ones in which more people not only began to see themselves in the changing face of America, but to see America the way he always has – as the only place on Earth where so many of our stories could even be possible.

Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters – Malia, 21, and Sasha, 18.

Hande Cilingir is currently Co-founder and CEO at Insider. Being a 1X entrepreneur, Hande founded Insider, the first integrated Growth Management Platform, with 5 fellow co-founders.

Hande was granted the most successful woman entrepreneur of the year by Microsoft and was awarded by Junior Chambers International (JCI). Selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in ISP-2014. Recently, Hande has been ranked as one of the top three women CEOs outside of the US by Crunchbase.

Being a highly influential tech enthusiast and a thought leader, she has been invited to speak at leading technology events to discuss latest trends and advancements in the customer experience delivery space. 

Tamara Rogers is the Global Chief Marketing Officer for GSK Consumer Healthcare. In this role, she oversees the development of marketing strategies, strategic portfolio management, product development and branding within the Global Categories of Oral Health; Wellness, Pain Relief; and Respiratory and Skin. She also oversees the Design Team, Marketing EDGE (Media, Content, Operations and Marketing Capability), and Expert Marketing, CBIA (Consumer Business Insights & Analytics), and E Comm.

Tamara came to GSK from Unilever, where she started in 1993 as a Management Trainee in the UK and progressed rapidly into positions of increasing seniority across Local, Regional and Global roles, across general management, sales and marketing functions. In 2012, she became the SVP of the Global Deodorants Category before moving to the USA in 2015 to become the EVP Region Head for the multi-billion-dollar North American Personal Care division. She has 25 years of industry experience working with brands including her time at Unilever where her most recent role was EVP of Personal Care North America building purpose-driven brands such as Love Beauty & Planet, Dove, Axe, Tresemme and Vaseline.

Tamara has led significant sized businesses—both turnaround as well as stepping up growth from sustaining success situations—with positive results. She is committed to building high-performing and diverse teams and has a strong track record of developing and empowering individuals to achieve stretch objectives. She is English but was born and brought up in Africa and has worked in both developed and emerging markets. Tamara studied Physiology at Edinburgh University and has a lifelong passion for science, health and wellness. She is married with two teenage children, loves all sports and has been a Chelsea Football Club season ticket holder for almost twenty years.

As Booking.com’s Chairwoman, Gillian Tans advises the company’s leadership on the long-term vision and operations for the business as well as key growth initiatives. Previously, Gillian served as Booking.com’s President and Chief Executive Officer, a role she was appointed to in 2016, following her experience as Chief Operating Officer as well as other positions at the helm of Booking.com’s Global Sales, Operations, IT, Content and Customer Care departments. Under her leadership, Booking.com has advanced its operations and sales across more than 225 countries and territories around the world.

Before joining Booking.com, Gillian spent four years with the international Golden Tulip Worldwide hotel group, where she served as Product Manager, Marketing Manager and Director of Sales. She also worked for the Intercontinental Hotel Group and with a number of independent hotels.

Gillian began her career at Hershey Entertainment and Resorts in Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of the Hotel Management School in Middelburg, in the Netherlands. She speaks English, Dutch, German and French.

Since September 2020, as Digitalisation Manager, Carolina leads the digitalization journey of Ingka – together with more than 165,000 co-workers - to make IKEA more affordable, accessible and people & planet positive. In her role, she is responsible for modernizing and embedding digital across IKEA, leading key strategic alignment and integration throughout the organization.

Carolina has a degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA. For the past 15 years, she has worked at IKEA, starting as Sales Manager in the IKEA Barakaldo Store in Spain, before moving to Sweden to work in the Global Sales Function in Helsingborg. She then returned to Spain as Store Manager in IKEA Malaga and led the opening of the IKEA Valencia store. Next, she moved on to become Deputy Retail Manager for the Czechia/Hungary/Slovakia region, followed by taking on the same role in IKEA Japan, and - in 2018 - moving to Poland, where she worked as Country Retail Manager and Chief Sustainability Officer.

Patrice Conxicoeur is Chief Executive Officer and Head of South East Asia at HSBC Asset Management (Singapore) Ltd since April 2020. Previously, he was the CEO of HSBC Asset Management (Japan) K.K. since April 2015.

Prior to that, Patrice held other senior roles within HSBC. Since May 2011 he was Global Head of Insurance Coverage with overall responsibility for the further development of HSBC Asset Management’s practice with insurance companies globally, including product strategy. He was also the Head of Institutional Business for Asia Pacific at HSBC Asset Management (Hong Kong) since 2008.

From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Conxicoeur was Chief Executive of Sinopia Asset Management, Asia-Pacific. He joined Sinopia in 1992 as an equity fund manager, became Head of Global Equities in 1995 and was
promoted to Head of Strategy, Equities and Balanced Products in 1998. Prior to joining Sinopia, Mr. Conxicoeur worked in Tokyo with Japan Gamma Asset Management during 1990-1992.
Mr. Conxicoeur graduated from the Lyon Graduate School of Business (now E.M. Lyon) in 1990 in
France.

Peter Larko is the Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong, overseeing communication activities for the Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Maybach, and smart brands and products, across several business units, including passenger cars, vans, buses and trucks.

Having held positions with FMCG companies in various markets as well as at the Foreign Ministry of his native country Sweden, he recently joined the Hong Kong organisation after several years at Mercedes-Benz China where he served as Head of Strategy and Campaign Steering.