Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, is a special correspondent for NBC News. In this role, he reports and produces long-form documentaries and provides expertise during election coverage and breaking news events for NBC News.

On December 1, 2004, Brokaw stepped down after 21 years as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. He has received numerous honors, including the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement and he was inducted as a fellow into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, Brokaw has received the Records of Achievement Award from The Foundation for the National Archives; the Association of the U.S. Army honored him with their highest award, the George Catlett Marshall Medal, first ever to a journalist and he was the recipient of the West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award, in recognition of devoted service to bringing exclusive interviews and stories to public attention. His insight, ability and integrity have earned him a dozen Emmys and two Peabody and duPont awards for his journalistic achievements. In 2003, NBC Nightly News was honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast, representing the program's fourth consecutive win in this category.

Over the years at NBC, while anchoring NBC Nightly News and Today, Brokaw also reported on 25 documentaries on subjects ranging from race, AIDS, the war on terror, Los Angeles gangs, Bill Gates, literacy, immigration and the evangelical movement. In addition to his long form documentaries, Tom Brokaw Reports, he has collaborated with NBC News' Peacock Productions for Discovery's Emmy-winning documentary Global Warming: What You Need to Know with Tom Brokaw, and History Channel's two-hour documentaries, 1968 with Tom Brokaw and KING.

In 2006, Brokaw reported on race and poverty in Separate and Unequal, which was awarded an RTNDA/Unity Award. The documentary took an honest look at the progress that's been made, and the problems that persist, 40 years after the civil rights movement. Later that year, he reported on illegal immigration in In the Shadow of the American Dream, exploring the economic realities, the social consequences and the political controversies surrounding one of the hottest topics dividing the country today.

In 2005, Brokaw returned to primetime for the first time since leaving the anchor desk with The Long War, an in-depth report on the war on terror. He traveled around the world - to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, France and Washington D.C.—to interview world leaders, intelligence experts and those personally affected by the events of Sept. 11 for this documentary. The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat, quickly followed in July 2005, and in September 2005, Brokaw reported on the religious revolution sweeping the country in In God they Trust. In December 2005, he received wide acclaim for his fourth documentary that year, To War and Back, which took a comprehensive look at what happens when young men go to war, lose friends, get hurt and then come home. Brokaw received his second Peabody in 2004 with the documentary, Tom Brokaw Reports: A Question of Fairness. The report examined the issue of affirmative action through the controversy surrounding the University of Michigan and its affirmative action policy, which detailed the continuing struggle to deal with race, fairness and higher education in America. In 2003, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Interview for America Remembers: 9/11 Air Traffic Controllers.

Prior to stepping down as anchor of Nightly News, Brokaw traveled to Iraq in June 2004 to cover the handover of power and reported for five days for all NBC News programs and MSNBC. In addition to interviewing a mix of newsmakers including Iraq's interim president Ghazi Al Yawer, General David Petraeus, the American General who is charged with rebuilding the Iraqi security forces and securing an exclusive interview with General Ricardo Sanchez, the man who was in charge of the American forces in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was captured, Brokaw patrolled the dangerous Baghdad streets in a humvee convoy with the First Cavalry Division, and also reported on student life in Baghdad with the class of 2004.

Brokaw was the only network evening news anchor to report from Normandy, France during the D-Day 60th Anniversary ceremonies in June 2004. He had exclusive interviews with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris and President George W. Bush at the American Cemetery Normandy Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, France on June 6, the 60th Anniversary of D Day. In February 2004, Brokaw returned to the Asian subcontinent to report on the challenges Pakistan and Afghanistan face as they continue to fight the war on terror. In addition to securing exclusive interviews Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Brokaw traveled with the Pakistani army to mountainous and barren terrain along the border with Afghanistan as they hunted for Al Qaeda and also reported from Southeastern Afghanistan, the base of the 10th Mountain Division, where U.S. soldiers are not only hunting for Al Qaeda, but trying to win the hearts and minds of the people as well.

In 2003, as the international controversy escalated over the increasing likelihood of war with Iraq, Brokaw traveled overseas to the diplomatic and military hotspots throughout the Middle East and the Gulf. On March 19, 2003, Brokaw was the first American news anchor to report that the war with Iraq had begun, and in April 2003, he landed the first television
interview with President Bush after the President declared the end of major combat. During the summer of 2003, Brokaw was the first evening news anchor to return to Baghdad to report for five nights for NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC on post-war Iraq and the reconstruction efforts.

He has an impressive series of additional "firsts," including the first exclusive U.S. one-on-one interview with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, earning an Alfred I. duPont- Columbia University Award. Brokaw was the first and only anchor to report from the scene the night the Berlin Wall fell, and was the first American anchor to travel to Tibet to report on human-rights abuses and to conduct an interview with the Dalai Lama. Brokaw has also reported in documentaries of international importance, including The Road to Baghdad where he documented the path to possible war with Iraq through the eyes of half a dozen people at the center of the crisis, and The Lost Boys, a story about how the ongoing war in Sudan forced the "lost boys" out of their villages in the 1980s, which won a National Press Club Award.

In 1997, Brokaw was awarded with another Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for Why Can't We Live Together, a documentary that examined the hidden realities of racial separation in America's suburbs. His first Peabody award in 1989 was for To Be An American, a documentary about the American tapestry: award in 1989 was for To Be An American, a documentary about the American tapestry: who we are, how we got here and what it means to become a new citizen.

The NBC News anchor also has a distinguished record as a political reporter. He has interviewed every president since Lyndon Baines Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968. Brokaw was NBC's White House correspondent during the national trauma of Watergate (1973-1976). From 1984 to 2004, he anchored all of NBC's political coverage, including primaries, national conventions and election nights, and moderated nine primary and/or general election debates.

Complementing his distinguished broadcast journalism career, Brokaw has written articles, essays and commentary for several publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, TIME, The New Yorker, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Life, National Geographic, Outside and Interview.

In 1998, Brokaw became a best selling author with the publication of The Greatest Generation. Inspired by the mountain of mail he received from his first book, Brokaw wrote The Greatest Generation Speaks in 1999. His third book, An Album of Memories, waspublished in 2001. In November 2002, Brokaw's fourth best selling book A Long Way from Home, a reflective look about growing up in the American Heartland, was released. In his fifth best-selling book, BOOM! Voices of the Sixties, Brokaw shares a series of remembrances and reflections of the time based on his experiences and over 50 interviews with a wide variety of well known artists, politicians, activists, business leader, and journalists, as well as lesser known figures, including a daughter of a former Mississippi segregationist governor, Vietnam veterans, civil rights activists, health care pioneers, environmentalists and war protesters.

Brokaw began his journalism career in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska. He anchored the late evening news on Atlanta's WSB-TV in 1965 before joining KNBC-TV in Los
Angeles. Brokaw was hired by NBC News in 1966 and from 1976-1981 he anchored NBC News' Today program.

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies.  Having invested nearly a quarter of a century of research into the topic, Jim has authored or co-authored six books that have sold in total more than ten million copies worldwide.  They include: the classic BUILT TO LAST, a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years; the international bestseller GOOD TO GREAT, translated into 35 languages; and HOW THE MIGHTY FALL, a New York Times bestseller that examines how great companies can self-destruct. 

His most recent book is GREAT BY CHOICE: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, coauthored with Morten Hansen.  Based on nine years of research, it answers the question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?  Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Jim’s prior books by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.

Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he now conducts research and consults with executives from the corporate and social sectors.  He holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University, and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. 

Jim has worked with senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred corporations.  He has also worked with social sector organizations across the spectrum, from education and the arts to religious organizations, local and federal government, healthcare, and cause-driven non-profits.  In 2005, he published a monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors. 

Jim holds a two-year appointment as the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He travels from his lab in Boulder to engage with cadets and West Point faculty on the topic of building great leaders. 

Jim is an avid rock climber and has made one-day ascents of the North Face of Half Dome and the three-thousand foot Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.  

Based in Surrey Hills, Australia 

Based in Highland Park, Ill.

Ryan Estis is the former Chief Strategy Officer for the $100 million People Marketing division of McCann-Erickson World Group Advertising and now serves at the Chief Experience Officer in a growing speaking and consulting practice. Recently recognized as one of the Top 100 keynote speakers in America alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Al Gore and Marcus Buckingham, Ryan is a leading expert on Leadership & Culture, Workforce Trends and Communication. He serves as the USA Sr. Associate with Employer Brand International, an advisory member on the SmartBrief Workforce Council, is a certified Human Capital Strategist and professional member of the National Speakers Association.

His consultancy develops strategy and communication design to help companies more effectively connect to their two most important audiences: employees and customers. He shares his thoughts on culture, engagement and leadership on his blog passiononpurposeblog.com.

Mindy Chapman is President of Mindy Chapman & Associates LLC and the founder of the acclaimed “Workplace Training that Clicks & Sticks™.” She has been hailed by the nation’s top professional associations including the SHRM, the American Bar Association, and the Ethics & Compliance Officers Association as a top ten national speaker and authority on civil rights compliance training and employment law issues. Federal and state compliance agencies, including the U.S. EEOC and the Department of Justice, have recognized and approved Ms. Chapman’s compliance training because of its unique ability to take complex legal and business concepts and distill them into practical business tools. This memorable approach helps organizations to avoid liability, minimize risk and create a culture of respect and retention of talent.

Mindy is in constant demand for on-site employment law training and risk management. She is also a co-author of one of the best-selling books published by the American Bar Association titled, Case Dismissed: Taking Your Harassment Prevention Training to Trial. Ms. Chapman also writes one of the top-rated national employment law blogs for The National Institute of Business Management called, “Case-in-Point” where she reports on critical cases and the practical lessons that will “click and stick” with us so we don’t end up in court to personally learn the lessons first hand. Mindy is a graduate from Northwestern University School of Law where she was a published member of the Journal of International Law and Business and earned the Lowden-Wigmore Prize for legal scholarship.
 

Follow Mindy on Twitter @mindychapman.