Meet the 2025 Predict Speakers
Los oradores de Predict brindan información general a través de contenido con visión de futuro para ayudar a posicionar a su organización para que se centre en el futuro.
Marsha Flanagan, M.Ed., CEM, President & CEO, IAEE
Marsha Flanagan, M.Ed., CEM is the President and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events® (IAEE). As IAEE’s president, she is responsible for the management of its full-time professional staff, producing the annual business operating plan and budget, overseeing the support of all meetings of governance units, leading business development, directing fund raising efforts, advocating for the industry and the organization’s members, and providing organizational leadership and strategic counsel to the board of directors. Flanagan also serves as the association’s representative with industry coalitions, partner organizations and strategic alliances. Visit www.iaee.com for more information.
Jim Gilmore, Co-Founder and Co-Author, Strategic Horizons, LLP
Jim Gilmore is a co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping enterprises conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. His ideas have been published in many of the world’s leading business publications, including the Harvard Business Review, Investor’s Business Daily, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
Jim is co-author of The Experience Economy: Competing for Time, Attention, and Money (Harvard Business School Press, 2019) and Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (also by Harvard Business School Press, 2007), and co-editor of Markets of One (Harvard Business School Press, 2000). He also wrote Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills (Greenleaf Book Group, 2016).
Jim is an associate professor in the Innovation and Design department in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and a Batten Fellow at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
Nicholas Johnston, Publisher, Axios
Nicholas Johnston is Publisher at Axios, a media company that, through Smart Brevity, gets you smarter faster on the topics that matter through coverage of business, tech, media, politics, and with local reporters in more than 30 cities.
As Publisher, Nick helps manage the Axios Events businesses and works closely with sales and the newsroom to launch free and subscription news products. He was the founding editor-in-chief of Axios and led the newsroom as it grew to more than 150 journalists.
Nick regularly appears on television to discuss the news of the day, and speaks at conferences on politics, tech and the media industry. He’s an investor in The Mill, a media start-up in the U.K., that has started local online news publications in six cities, including London.
Before helping to launch Axios in 2017, Nick was a managing editor at Bloomberg where he oversaw newsletters and breaking news coverage in Washington. Previously, as a reporter for Bloomberg he covered the White House, Capitol Hill and the 2008 presidential campaign. Nick began his journalism career at the Washington Post and is a graduate of Georgetown University.
Lindsey Piegza, Ph.D., Chief Economist and Managing Director, Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
Dr. Lindsey Piegza is the Chief Economist for Stifel Financial. In her role Dr. Piegza translates economic data and market moving events to assist institutional and private wealth clients in better understanding today’s economy and making thoughtful investment decisions. She specializes in the research and analysis of economic trends and activity, world economies, financial markets, and monetary and fiscal policies. Prior to her role with Stifel, she was the Senior Economist for an investment bank in New York City for eight years consulting clients in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
A highly sought-after speaker across national and international forums, Dr. Piegza is often quoted in the business press. She is a contributor for the BBC World Service and a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox Business, as well as national radio and other business news outlets.
In addition to her role with Stifel, Dr. Piegza is an instructor at the Pacific Coast Banking School (PCBS), a member of the Chicago Federal Reserve Advisory Committee, SIFMA’s Economic Advisory Roundtable Chair, and a well-respected author. She has published numerous academic papers in journals such as the Harvard Business Review and in textbooks from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Dr. Piegza is a member of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), American Economic Association (AEA), the Economic Club of Chicago and the Economic Club of New York. Dr. Piegza was also named a 2019 Women of Influence by the Chicago Business Journal. She holds two degrees from Northwestern University in political science and economics and earned her Ph.D. in economics from the City University of New York.
Dr. Piegza volunteers to host quarterly regional events for the Stifel’s Women’s Initiate Network (WIN) and is also a volunteer court appointed advocate for abused and neglected children (CASA). A native of Chicago, she is based in Stifel’s downtown Chicago office and resides with her husband and three small children in Wisconsin.
Brian Pagel, CEIR 2025 Chairperson of the Board, Executive Vice President, Emerald X
Brian Pagel currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Business Development and oversees the Residential and Commercial Connections portfolio at Emerald. Brian began his career at Shore Varrone in 1998 and has worked in a variety of leadership positions with Bill Communications, VNU, Nielsen Expositions and Emerald.
Brian has produced nearly 100 events in his career, successfully repositioned several struggling properties and was a part of the deal team that acquired CEDIA Expo in 2017. In 2013 he helped to champion an effort to co-locate the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) with the International Builders Show (IBS), creating Design and Construction Week. Brian holds a degree in Organizational Communications from the University of Kansas and is an active volunteer with both the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) and the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE). He is also a frequent industry speaker, blogger and guest columnist.
Brian is originally from Littleton, Colorado, but currently lives and works in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Dr. Sam Potolicchio, Presidente, Foro de Preparación de Líderes Globales
Dr. Sam Potolicchio was named one of “America’s Best Professors” by the Princeton Review, the Future Leader of American Higher Education by the Association of Colleges and Universities, and winner of the OZY Educator Award as one of the six outstanding American educators. He was also profiled in a cover story on his leadership curriculum by Newsweek Japan as the “Best Professor in America”. Potolicchio is President of the Preparing Global Leaders Forum and Distinguished University Professor, Department Chairman and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Political Science at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
He teaches in the EMBA programs at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown and at the Mannheim Business School (Germany). He is a visiting lecturer at University of Bologna (Italy). He is a columnist for Newsweek Japan, a Distinguished Global Scholar at the Canterbury School of Fort Myers, and the lecturer on Leadership at the Library of Congress for OWLC, an international leadership program of the United States Congress.
Potolicchio is an adviser to prominent business, non-profit and government leaders. He created and designed the first undergraduate degree in Global Governance and Leadership in English in the Russian Federation where he serves as Academic Director.
De 2015 a 2019, Potolicchio se desempeñó como Director de Educación Global y Personalizada en la Escuela McCourt de Políticas Públicas de la Universidad de Georgetown, fue profesor visitante en la Universidad de Nueva York y se unió al Senador Richard Lugar como profesores titulares del equipo en el Semestre de UIndy en Washington. . Potolicchio ha dado conferencias en más de 85 países, desde Oxford, LSE, Cambridge y Yale hasta la Universidad Komar de Irak y la Universidad Estatal de Donetsk. Como entrenador de baloncesto de escuela secundaria, llevó a sus Little Hoyas a 6 títulos de liga y anteriormente se desempeñó como maestro de latín de quinto grado, maestro de Derecho e Historia en una escuela secundaria pública y oficial de admisiones de la escuela secundaria.
B.A. Government, Georgetown; B.A. Psychology, Georgetown; M.T.S. Theology and Culture, Harvard; PRSE, Harvard; MA, Government, Georgetown; PhD, Government, Georgetown
Adam Sacks, presidente de Tourism Economics, una empresa de Oxford Economics
Adam Sacks is the President of Tourism Economics; an Oxford Economics company dedicated to unlocking the power of economics for the travel sector.
For more than 25 years, Adam has worked with destinations, industry associations, and companies around the world in the areas of policy analysis, market assessments, and economic impact.
Adam’s work has provided the foundation for billions of dollars in capital investment decisions by hotel companies, developers, and investors.
Adam also manages the ongoing production of travel forecasts that have consistently guided the travel industry through uncertain times.
He is an authority on measuring the economic impact of visitor activity and his work regularly informs national and local government policy.
Jonathon Wood, Principal, Control Risks
Jonathan is a Principal in Control Risks’ geopolitical and strategic risk advisory team. He provides analysis and strategic advisory on political, operational, security, and integrity risks to multinational organizations in the technology, financial, energy, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and industrial sectors. His subject matter expertise encompasses geopolitics, economic development, sanctions, and transnational security issues.
Prior to joining Control Risks, Jonathan evaluated multilateral development bank procurement policies for a consultancy based outside of Washington, DC and on defense sector integrity issues at Transparency International in London. He also worked as an analyst and organizer for leading US food security organizations based in Washington, DC, and Boston.
Jonathan holds degrees with honors from Harvard University and the London School of Economics (LSE).
