CIBC 2026 Keynote Speakers
“Sharpen Your Leadership Edge – Practical Tools for Business Growth”
Richard Bryan | Executive Coach, Business Owner & Author
Growing a business today requires more than hard work or better strategy – it requires clear, focused leadership.
In this practical and engaging keynote, business owners and leaders will learn how to:
- Focus on the work only leaders can do, instead of getting pulled into day-to-day firefighting
- Create a culture that drives execution, with clear communication, shared expectations, and accountability
- Attract, develop, and retain the right people, as the business grows – without constantly rehiring or carrying performance issues
This session delivers real-world leadership tools that help leaders reduce friction, strengthen their teams, and move from reacting to problems to leading with confidence and clarity.
Attendees will leave with simple, actionable ideas they can apply immediately to improve focus, execution, and results in their organization.
What You’ll Gain:
- Clarity on where to spend your time and energy as a leader
- Better communication and follow-through without adding bureaucracy
- Practical tools for building culture and developing A-player talent
About Richard Bryan
At only 28 years of age, Richard took the reins of a 100 year old, $120 million, family owned, car and truck dealership in the UK after his father was forced to retire due to illness. The business was losing $3.5 million a year and there was no leadership succession plan in place.
With help from his coach and mentor, Richard was able to clearly define his role as a leader, forge a team of trusted A-Players and learn the vital art of leadership succession planning. Ultimately, the business was able to survive and then thrive in a highly competitive industry with consistent growth and profitability and the addition of six additional new car franchises.
After 10 years as CEO, he sold the car business to another UK based dealer group and transitioned the family business into real estate investment and development.
Today, Richard is a CEO and leadership team coach, keynote speaker and author. Using the lessons learned from his 25 years of business ownership he works with CEOs and leaders across multiple industry sectors. He is passionate about helping leaders to build cohesive high performing teams with predictable business growth and profitability.
Richard is based in Evergreen, Colorado where he lives with his wife, Melissa. He makes regular visits to his hometown of Bristol, England where he owns a successful commercial real estate business.
“Making AI Part of the Business: From One-Off Tool to Everyday Advantage”
Brandon Carlson | Owner Lean TECHniques
You know you need to be leveraging AI. You’re probably already using tools like ChatGPT to draft content, brainstorm, or speed up routine work. But how do you move from occasional use to something that’s built into how your business runs — improving efficiency, decision-making, and results?
This session is for leaders who want more than experiments. You’ll see real examples of how AI is being used across business functions like marketing, operations, compliance, and sales and walk away with a simple way to spot where it can create meaningful impact in your business next.
About Brandon Carlson
Brandon Carlson is the founder of Lean TECHniques, a technology and management consultancy based in Des Moines specializing in Digital Transformation, IT Modernization, and Software Delivery. Known for replacing ego with empathy and a straightforward, “meet people where they are” approach, Brandon values curiosity and collaboration over dogma and has been on his learning journey in technology for over 30 years.
“Building a Civic Renaissance in Central Iowa: From Division to Flourishing”
Alexandra Hudson | Presented by 
Across the country, leaders are asking the same question: how do we move forward in a time marked by division, polarization, and disconnection?
The answer is not to eliminate disagreement. It is to learn how to flourish across difference.
In this session, Alexandra Hudson, author of The Soul of Civility, will share the core ideas behind a growing movement of civic renewal. Civility is not politeness, and agreement is not the goal. Civility is a way of seeing others as they really are, people with dignity and equal worth, and it enables leaders to pursue the good of others, even in the midst of disagreement.
Drawing on examples from government, business, education, and civic life, participants will learn how these ideas are already being put into practice, and how they can begin building a civic renaissance in Central Iowa.
This session is an invitation to lead differently, to strengthen your organization and community, and to take part in a broader movement toward human flourishing.
About Alexandra Hudson
Alexandra O. Hudson is the author of the bestselling book The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves (St. Martin’s Press), which has catalyzed a national and international conversation about how to restore dignity, respect, and flourishing in divided times. She is the founder of Civic Renaissance, a global community of more than 50,000 readers committed to reviving beauty, goodness, and truth as resources for richer lives today.
A 2020 Novak Journalism Fellow, Alexandra’s writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, USA Today, POLITICO, Newsweek, and beyond, and she is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CBS, PBS, C-SPAN, and Fox News.
She also created Storytelling and the Human Condition; a TV series produced by The Great Courses—Netflix for lifelong learners—exploring how stories shape human flourishing. A sought-after thinker and speaker, Alexandra has advised foreign governments—from the Parliament of Canada to the UK House of Lords—and addressed audiences at institutions such as Yale Law School, Stanford University, and Court of Appeals across the nation. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the London School of Economics, where she studied as a Rotary Scholar.
Today, Alexandra draws on insights from her 100-city book tour and hundreds of conversations with leaders across the world to share what is working in civic life and the revival of civility. She now partners with corporations, communities, schools, and workplaces worldwide to implement practical tools that foster civic, social, and intellectual flourishing. From Carmel, Indiana to Rome, Italy, she equips leaders to cultivate environments where disagreement coexists with dignity and where genuine human thriving becomes possible.
She lives in Indianapolis with her husband and children, where they are restoring a historic Italian Renaissance–style home—an apt metaphor for her life’s work of recovering the wisdom and beauty of the past to serve the needs of the present.
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