Sunday Opening Keynote

Leading in Times of Chaos

Sunday, June 25
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Sponsored by

The world is fast moving and full of uncertainty. No situation demonstrates this like the battlefield, which is why the US military developed VUCA, a framework for understanding—and defeating—chaos. VUCA, representing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, helps leaders define the challenges they confront and how best to conquer them. Combat veteran, author, and Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Team Rubicon, Jake Wood will share how Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility interact to help teams thrive in chaos, whether in the boardroom or in the marketplace. Wood's experience as a Marine Sniper in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as an entrepreneur who has built the fastest growing disaster response organization in America, provide him with compelling real-life stories to draw upon to help demonstrate the key lessons of conquering chaos. 

Jake Wood is Executive Chairman of Team Rubicon and Founder and CEO of Groundswell. He is an award-winning entrepreneur, two-time author, and recognized expert on leadership, organizational culture and crisis management, Wood recently founded Groundswell, a revolutionary venture-backed financial technology company that is looking to disrupt philanthropy and employee compensation by making personal charitable foundations as common as 401(k)s.

Wood is also founder and Executive Chairman of Team Rubicon—the fastest growing and most innovative disaster response organization in the world. Since 2010, Team Rubicon has grown to over 150,000 volunteers and responded to nearly 1,000 crises around the world and the United States. Under Wood's leadership, Team Rubicon developed a reputation for its corporate culture, and was named one of the top nonprofits to work for in America five times. 

Prior to Team Rubicon, Wood served as a Marine Corps scout-sniper with combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a varsity football player for the Wisconsin Badgers. He is the author of Once a Warrior, a memoir detailing his time at war and disaster zones around the world that legendary journalist Tom Brokaw said was "the book America needs right now."