14 Jul July 14, 2022 – Reducing Risk at Truss Everett Harper and Warrior Leadership Col. Chris Kolenda
Everett Harper – CEO and Co-Founder of Truss and Author of Move to the Edge, Declare it Center: Practices and Processes for Creatively Solving Complex Problems
Everett Harper
Everett Harper is the CEO and Co-Founder of Truss, a human-centered software development company, named as an Inc 5000 fastest-growing private company for 2020 and 2021. He is a rare combination of a Black entrepreneur with Silicon Valley pedigree, a NCAA National Champion, and a proven record for solving complex problems with social impact. He had the foresight to build a company that’s been remote-first since 2011, salary-transparent since 2017, anticipating the importance of hybrid work and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) by a decade. Before Truss, Everett was at Linden Lab, maker of Second Life, a pioneering virtual world, and Bain and Company management consultants. While majoring in biomedical and electrical engineering at Duke, he also won a NCAA National Championship in soccer. He was inducted into the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame in 2019. Everett graduated with an MBA and a M.Ed in Learning, Design and Technology from Stanford University. In his career, he’s leveraged his education and experience to help millions of others, from helping fix healthcare.gov at Truss, fighting poverty worldwide as a Board Member of CARE, and helping low- and moderate-income homebuyers while at Self-Help, a community development finance institution. Everett’s distinctive voice and unique history makes him a sought-after speaker on leadership, remote work, DEI, and social entrepreneurship. He has been featured at conferences such as Dent, Tugboat, TechStars and Velocity, podcasts like the Commonwealth Club and AfroTech, and writing for Forbes, Thrive Global, and TechCrunch. “Move to the Edge, Declare it Center” is his first book.
Retired Army Colonel Christopher D. Kolenda, Ph.D – Founder of Strategic Leaders Academy and Author of Leadership: The Warrior’s Art
Christopher D. Kolenda, PhD
Retired Army Colonel Christopher D. Kolenda, Ph.D., founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy, works with leaders who want to apply insights from history and military operations to take their businesses to new heights. Chris is a West Point graduate, internationally renowned combat leader, entrepreneur, and former trusted adviser to three 4-star generals and two undersecretaries of defense. His first book, Leadership: The Warrior’s Art has been in print for over 20 years and helped tens of thousands of leaders succeed in combat and business. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. His battlefield leadership has been featured in several books, including Jake Tapper’s bestseller The Outpost. He holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King’s College, London, and is the author of Zero-Sum Victory: What We’re Getting Wrong About War and Leadership: The Warrior’s Art, a trusted anthology that’s been in print for over 20 years and helped tens of thousands of leaders succeed in combat and business.