Wesley Lambert, CPA, is an American/Australian entrepreneur & restaurateur and current CFO of the Velocity Group, a group of retail, wholesale, manufacturing, property, hospitality consulting, & pharmaceutical companies.

Lambert joined the United States Army as a Medic (1995), served as a United Nations Peacekeeper in the Republic of Macedonia, recipient of a Good Conduct Medal, ARMY Achievement Medal, AF Service Medal, and UNPREDEP Medal. Upon returning to Atlanta on a US Army Green-to-Gold ROTC scholarship he pursued his business degree at Goizueta Business School at Emory University where he became a member of Phi Delta Theta. He later served as Chapter Adviser for Phi Delta Theta chapter and served on the Goizueta Business School Alumni Board.

He worked for several years as an investment banker for a restaurant capital group.  From their he moved to hospitality operations. After moving to Australia in 2007, he helped form and lead the IPO of Pacific Restaurant Group, then partnered with Jamie Oliver to add Jamie’s Italian restaurants to the group. Lambert was granted Australian Citizenship for his contribution to the Australian economy, and is now a Dual Citizen of the USA and Australia.

Mr. Laughlin began his career at age 13 greasing pans in a local bakery. He joined the Continental Baking Company, as it was then known, as a route salesman after college, and spent almost his entire career with the company. Under his direction, it became one of the world’s largest baking companies, making products like Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies.

He was named president in 1949 and became chairman and chief executive officer in 1950. He remained chief executive officer until he retired in 1973.

Mr. Laughlin was born in Kansas City, Mo., and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1926. He later attended the American Institute of Baking in Chicago.

Budge Huskey is president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC  and also served as president and chief operating officer. As chief executive officer, Huskey oversees marketing, operations, learning and field services supporting more than 84,000 Coldwell Banker sales associates. Prior to joining Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Huskey had spent the previous 12 years in several executive positions with NRT, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage.

Well regarded in the real estate industry, Huskey served as president of the Orlando Association of Realtors, where he was honored as Realtor of the Year, and director and committee chairperson for the Florida Association of Realtors. Huskey currently serves as a National Association of Realtors Director and serves on the Strategic Planning Committee. He won the 2006 Coldwell Banker Chandler Barton Award representing dedication and service to the Coldwell Banker brand. He is routinely recognized by Inman News as one of the Most Influential People in Real Estate.

William S. Demchak is chairman, president and chief executive officer of The PNC Financial Services Group, one of the largest diversified financial services companies in the United States.

Demchak joined PNC in 2002 as chief financial officer. In July 2005, he was named head of PNC’s Corporate & Institutional Banking responsible for PNC’s middle market and large corporate businesses, as well as capital markets, real estate finance, equity management and leasing. Demchak was promoted to senior vice chairman in 2009 and named head of PNC businesses in August 2010. He was elected president in April 2012, chief executive officer in April 2013 and chairman in April 2014.

Before joining PNC in 2002, Demchak served as the global head of Structured Finance and Credit Portfolio for JP Morgan Chase.

Demchak is director of BlackRock, Inc. He is also a member of the board of directors and serves on the Regulatory Management Committee of The Financial Services Roundtable as well as the Supervisory Board of The Clearing House. He is a board member and past chairman of the Greater Pittsburgh Council of the Boy Scouts of America. In addition, he serves on the boards of directors of the Extra Mile Education Foundation and the YMCA of Pittsburgh.

John Dasburg is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Owner of ASTAR USA LLC, a leader in air freight and logistics services. Previously, he served as Chairman, President and CEO of Burger King Corp., where he led a turnaround of the nation’s second-largest burger chain. Perhaps Dasburg’s greatest business achievement was rescuing Northwest Airlines from the verge of bankruptcy in the 1990s. He guided Northwest Airlines to one of the greatest turnarounds in U.S. aviation returning the company to profitability in 1994 for the first time in a decade. Dasburg was named Travel Agent magazine’s Man of the Year in 1994 for his efforts. Prior to his appointment at Northwest, Dasburg served in numerous executive positions at Marriott Corporation. He was President of the Lodging Group, and Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of its parent corporation. He began his professional career at the accounting firm KPMG where he was named a Partner in less than five years at the firm. Dasburg, who also earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering (1966) and a Juris Doctorate (1973) from UF, and his wife, Mary Lou, (JD ’80) have been loyal and generous in giving back to their alma mater. Their gifts include an endowed chair in engineering, a professorship in corporate law and an endowed business chair. The Dasburg’s are the only donors to UF that have endowed chairs in three separate units.

Additionally, the Dasburg’s have established an endowment for scholarships for student athletes, and funds for the construction of a new president’s residence and Hough Hall, which houses the Hough Graduate School of Business; the Mary Lou and John H. Dasburg Endowed Professorship in Cancer Genomics at the Mayo Clinic where Mr. Dasburg serves as an Emeritus Public Trustee. He was recognized with UF’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1998, and is a Life Member of the UF Alumni Association.

Dasburg, a three-year veteran of the U.S. Navy with one year in Vietnam, has received numerous awards for his business success and civic activities. He was named a White House Fellow by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. In 2001, he was a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans and the Commercial Air Transport Laureate Award. He serves on the Board of Directors of Florida Council of 100, Mercy Hospital and Mercy Foundation, and is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Florida StateUniversity System and the UF Board of Trustees.

William H. Danforth was the founder of Ralston- Purina in 1894 and a co-founder of the American Youth Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping youth live a balanced and healthy life. Danforth is also the author of the book, I Dare You!

Through the Danforth Foundation, he subsidized the construction of 24 Danforth Chapels on college campuses around the United States, and one in Japan. Berea College, which Danforth attended, has one of them.

John Costello has over thirty years of experience in consumer products and services, retail, and technology. The first half of his career was spent in classic management jobs, with the second half helping companies drive innovation and navigate high change environments, from start-ups to $70 billion companies.

He was one of the early leaders of omni-channel marketing and retail to leverage the synergies between DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) eCommerce, retail stores, catalogs, DR TV and the internet to drive total sales and profit and is considered a leader in the digital transformation of marketing and retail.

John currently serves as CEO of Costello Ventures since retiring as president – global marketing and innovation of Dunkin’ Brands (the parent company of Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins). He previously served as executive vice president of The Home Depot, chief global marketing officer of Yahoo, senior vp of Pepsi-Cola USA, CEO of MVP.com and president of Nielsen Marketing Research US. He began his career at Procter & Gamble and rose to lead all advertising and marketing for P&G’s Beauty Care Division.

Costello been recognized as one of most influential and innovative executives by numerous organizations, one of the Top 10 Merchants by DSN Retailing Today and was elected to both the Chief Marketing Officer Hall of Fame and Retail Advertising Hall of Fame.

He has significant governance experience, serving as a current or past director of Ace Hardware, Quaker Oats, The Bombay Company, Ring, Inc. (which was acquired by Amazon), GroundTruth, Inc., and as a current board advisor to Untuckit, WinView Games and Linkwell Health.

Costello also has significant leadership experience in industry and nonprofit organizations. He is past chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association, the Association of National Advertisers and the Advertising Council.

He currently serves on the board and executive committee and chairs the Governance Committee of Yellowstone Forever, and is co-chair, executive committee member and Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival. He is a past director/trustee of The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Film Institute, and Georgia Aquarium.

Christopher M. Connor is the executive chairman of the Sherwin-Williams Company, a Fortune 500 company in the general building materials industry. He joined the company in 1983, became the CEO in October 1999 and the chairman in April 2000, and was the president from July 2005 to October 2006. In 2009 he was one of the 200 highest-paid CEOs.

Connor is on the board of directors of Sherwin-Williams, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the United Way Services of Greater Cleveland, the Playhouse Square Foundation, and Eaton Corporation; and is a member of the dean’s advisory committee of the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. He is also on the boards of the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Coatings Association; was on the board of directors of Diebold and National City Corporation; and was chairman of the boards of Walsh Jesuit High School, Keep America Beautiful, and University Hospitals Health System.

Connor grew up in Akron, Ohio, and graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School, and from The Ohio State University in 1978, where he majored in sociology. After graduation he worked at an advertising agency and at the Glidden paint company, then became an advertising director at Sherwin Williams. He said, “Joining Sherwin-Williams was the single best decision, other than asking my wife to marry me, that I’ve ever made.” A fourth generation Irish-American, he appeared on the Irish America list of 100 Irish-Americans.

Timothy C. Collins is the founder, senior managing director, and chief executive officer of Ripplewood Holdings LLC. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Citigroup. Collins is a director of several public companies as well as some of Ripplewood’s private portfolio companies.

Jim Clifton is Chairman and CEO of Gallup. Clifton has served as CEO of Gallup, a company based on consulting and analytics, since 1988.

Jim is the author of The Coming Jobs War, co-author of Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder and the creator of “The Gallup Microeconomic Path”, a framework of economics used to increase performance in the workplace.