Keynote Speakers
As an attendee of Matrix's
Get Connected conference, you will have access to our
famous keynote sessions. It is our goal to provide you
with content that offers important insight into the key
issues we all face.
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Sunday Keynotes |

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor |

Billy Beane |
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Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a trained and
published neuroanatomist. Her specialty was in the
postmortem investigation of the human brain as it relates to
schizophrenia and the severe mental illnesses. Because she
has a brother who has been diagnosed with the brain disorder
schizophrenia, Dr. Taylor served for three years on the
Board of Directors of National NAMI (National Alliance on
Mental Illness) between 1994-1997. (Currently she serves as
President of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI in
Bloomington, Indiana.)
Because there is a long term shortage of brain tissue
donated for postmortem research by individuals diagnosed
with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, Dr. Taylor travels
as the National Spokesperson for the Mentally Ill for the
Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Harvard Brain Bank)
located at McLean Hospital. As the Singin’ Scientist, Dr.
Taylor delivers a very popular keynote address titled How To
Get Your Brain To Do What You Want It To Do.
View Full Bio
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Considered one of the most
progressive and talented baseball executives in the game
today, Billy Beane has molded the Oakland Athletics into a
perennial postseason contender since assuming the general
manager’s duties shortly following the 1997 season. Under
Beane’s watch, the A’s have compiled a 1300-1128 (.535)
record over the last 15 seasons, which is the fourth-best
record in the American League and seventh best in all of
baseball during that time frame. The A’s have won five
American League West titles (2000; 2002-03; 2006; 2012) and
secured one AL Wild Card spot (2001) during that span. His
teams have posted 90 or more wins in seven of the last 12
years.
View Full Bio
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Monday
Keynote |

Stuart Varney
Sponsored by
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Rich Meyers
Sponsored by
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Charismatic, articulate, and candid, Stuart Varney is credited with changing the way financial and economic news is reported worldwide, consistently winning rave reviews from audiences. Varney anchors Varney & Company on the FOX Business Network, appearing regularly with Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Megyn Kelly, among others.
Varney's experience and in-depth knowledge enable him to tailor his remarks to address those economic issues most relevant to your organization and audience. From global economic uncertainty to tax policy to the Federal Reserve, Varney will enlighten, engage, and motivate your audience. His presentations continually evolve with the dynamic economic climate, keeping your audience abreast and ahead of the headlines.
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Rich Myers has over 25 years experience working with leaders in the financial sector, government and politics to develop and manage effective stakeholder communications programs.
In the trading community, he has served in leadership roles at Nasdaq, the Chicago Board of Trade, and Liquidnet, an award-winning global broker. As head of Edelman's New York financial group, he advised some of the world's leading alternative asset managers, including Silver Lake, Jefferies, Citadel, Perry Capital, Nomura, Credit Suisse and CME Group.
Rich specializes in developing strategies that help financial firms position themselves and effectively manage issues with investors, clients, regulators and the media. He has extensive experience working with financial and regulatory media from the world's top-tier media outlets. Rich has personally advised CEOs and other C-suite executives on investor communications, crisis response, litigation, high-profile M&A, and regulatory issues concerning the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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Tuesday
Keynote |
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Schlomo Benartzi, PhD
Sponsored by

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Molly Fletcher
Sponsored by
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Professor
Shlomo Benartzi is a leading authority on behavioral finance
with a special interest in personal finance and participant
behavior in defined contribution plans. He received his
Ph.D. from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of
Management, and he is currently co-chair of the Behavioral
Decision-Making Group at The Anderson School at UCLA.
Professor Benartzi is also co-founder of the Behavioral
Finance Forum (www.behavioralfinanceforum.com),
a collective of 40 prominent academics and 40 major
financial institutions from around the globe.
The Forum helps consumers make better financial decisions by fostering
collaborative research efforts between academics and
industry leaders. Professor Benartzi’s most significant
research contribution is the development of Save More
Tomorrow™ (SMarT), a behavioral prescription designed to
help employees increase their savings rates gradually over
time.
Along with Richard Thaler of the University of
Chicago, he was recognized by Money as one of 2004’s
“Class Acts” for SMarT’s success – increasing savings rates
in one plan from 3.5% to 13.6%. The SMarT program is now
offered by approximately half of the large retirement plans
in the U.S. and a growing number of plans in Australia and
the U.K. Professor Benartzi has supplemented his academic
research with practical experience, serving on the advisory
boards of the Alaska State Pension, Fuller and Thaler Asset
Management, Guggenheim Partners, Morningstar and the U.S.
Department of Labor. He is currently serving as Chief
Behavioral Economist of the Allianz Global Investors Center
for Behavioral Finance.
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Nicknamed “the female Jerry Maguire” by CNN,
Molly Fletcher has worked with hundreds of top athletes,
coaches and media personalities in her career as a sports
agent. An entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker, Molly
heads up her own business, MWF Enterprises, LLC. Molly
has worked with some of the top names in the sports
industry, including Tom Izzo, Ernie Johnson, Jr., Matt
Kuchar, Doc Rivers, John Smoltz, Joe Theismann and more.
She is the author of two books,
Your Dream Job Game Plan,
a tactical guide to becoming your own career agent,
and The Business of Being the
Best, in which she extracts the common traits
found in top performers. Molly speaks to audiences around
the country on topics related to leadership, relationship
selling, customer service and branding. She applies lessons
learned from her nearly two decades of experience in the
sports industry to the business world.
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