Suneel Gupta

“Momentum: Boosting Resilience, Fulfillment and Performance”
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Bestselling author and entrepreneur Suneel Gupta has made a career out of studying the successes and failures of leaders and exploring the link between well-being and performance. In Friday’s opening keynote, titled “Momentum: Boosting Resilience, Fulfillment and Performance,” Gupta will address what he calls the “human energy crisis” and the link between well-being and performance.

Gupta is a visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School and the host of the docuseries “Business Class,” which highlights the success stories and challenges of entrepreneurs, including Martha Stewart and Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio. He has written two books, “Backable: The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance on You,” and “Everyday Dharma: 8 Essential Practices for Finding Success and Joy in What You Do.”

Combining ancient wisdom and scientific research, Gupta works to help leaders overcome the “energy crisis” at work and develop better energy management strategies in order to boost creativity, innovation, and productivity, while simultaneously improving their emotional resilience and well-being.

Gupta’s research also draws from his own experiences as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Following the collapse of his first two Silicon Valley startups more than a decade ago, Gupta became the “face of failure” when a New York Times article captured his comments at a conference on failure. But he soon achieved success as the founding CEO of RISE (now owned by Amazon), a mobile health company that partnered with then-First Lady Michelle Obama to provide low-cost health coaching to people in need. He has also invested in numerous well-known companies, including Airbnb, 23andMe and the meditation app Calm.

He has a degree in information systems from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and law and business degrees from Northwestern University.