Developing human beings over performance beings is the mission that drives Donna Porter in her role as an experiential architect. She works with courageous leaders and organizations to own their responsibility in humanizing the employee experience. She lifts up and supports them as they unapologetically lean into curiosity, empathy, compassion, and possibility without getting caught up in labels, job titles, organizational politics, and inhumane performance management tactics. She creates space to bring out the best in people and guides others in how to do the same. When Donna is in the house, people feel seen and heard, and it shows!
Nancy Tennant is a practitioner, professor, and bestselling author in innovation and leadership. She is one of the world’s leading pioneers in transforming businesses to achieve innovation from everyone and everywhere. Businessweek named her one of the 25 Innovation Champions in the world. She is an adjunct professor of leadership at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and co-founder of the Booth School of Business's Leadership Studio. Nancy is also an instructor at the IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame, where she co-founded the Innovation Academy, training thousands of innovators from across industries, NGOs, and government organizations. She is a frequent public speaker to C-level audiences around the world.
While serving as vice president of innovation for Whirlpool Corporation, Nancy transformed the company into an innovation powerhouse, resulting in acclaim from Fast Company and Fortune, while creating billions in new revenue from innovation. She was also responsible for leadership development at Whirlpool, co-founding Whirlpool University, which enrolled more than 10,000 leaders per year from 170 countries. Nancy also founded the affinity group The Creatives at Whirlpool, unleashing underappreciated creatives to find their voice through community.
Nancy is the co-author of three bestselling books: Unleashing Innovation, Mastering Virtual Teams, and Strategic Innovation. Her lastest book, Transform Your Company for the Innovation Universe, is a practitioner-to-practitioner, company-focused innovation guide. Nancy's also published an e-learning series called The Innovation Universe Master Class Series.
Nancy holds a doctorate from The George Washington University. She is the president emerita of The First Tee of Benton Harbor, a not-for-profit organization that offers life skills to at-risk youth. She is a good, but not great, artist, writer, poet, and lap-swimmer. No matter, she enjoys life to the fullest.
