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Shawn Achor

2017 and 2023 Speaker

SHAWN ACHOR is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential. Achor graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a masters from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. After spending 12 years at Harvard, Achor traveled to 50 countries studying how to create an interconnected approach to potential and happiness. He has now worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, and at places like NASA, the NFL, and the Pentagon. Achor has battle-tested his research in high challenge environments from working with all the public schools in Flint Michigan, to six battalions of Marines at Camp Pendleton, to government leaders at Camp David, to students in a shantytown in Soweto South Africa, to hospitals in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando and the Boston bombing. In every place Achor has found that optimism can be increased through mindset and behavioral change, and that by creating an interconnected approach to happiness and success, we shine brighter together. Achor’s research made the cover of Harvard Business Review, his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with over 20 million views, and his lecture airing on PBS has been seen by millions.