Speakers

Eric Boles is the CEO and Founder of The Game Changers, Inc., which provides a non-traditional approach to performance management through talent development, business strategy, change management, cultural transformation, and peak performance.

Boles influences an organization’s most valuable resource, its people, through high-energy and powerful storytelling aimed at unleashing individual potential, navigating change and leading with purpose. Recent clients include IBM, FedEx, Motorola, Astra Zeneca, Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Mutual, Medtronic, Motion Industries, Bridgestone Tires, Southeastern Grocers, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

With his experience in corporate boardrooms as an executive coach and business consultant, Boles brings razor-sharp insights and leadership strategies that help marketplace. His perspectives on managing and leading change, transforming culture, and overcoming complacency, are laced with practical tools and principles that people can apply both professionally and personally.

Before becoming a sought-after speaker and consultant, Boles learned many of his principles of peak performance, team dynamics, and leadership from his experience as a wide receiver with the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers and New York Jets.

Eric is the author of Moving to Great: Unleashing Your Best in Life and Work.

Kim Brandt is CMS’ Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer. Previously, she was a Partner at the Washington, D.C.-based policy firm Tarplin, Downs & Young, LLC, where she provided strategic advice on a broad array of healthcare regulatory, enforcement, and policy matters. She also served as an Advisor to the private equity firm Enhanced Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm focused on healthcare, and held board positions at two of its portfolio companies. 

Kim has held multiple senior executive positions in government, including serving as Principal Deputy Administrator for Policy and Operations during the first Trump Administration. In that role she oversaw all activities necessary for the operation and management of CMS’ $1.4T budget in addition to leading efforts to reform the Physician Self-referral regulations and develop the first CMS interoperability rule. Kim previously served as Chief Oversight Counsel and General Counsel on the staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee where she led multiple healthcare investigations, the investigation into IRS political targeting and oversaw the political nominations process. Before joining the Finance Committee staff, Kim was a Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird in Washington, D.C. Her previous government service includes serving as the CMS Director of the Medicare Program Integrity Group and working at the HHS Office of Inspector General as a Senior Counsel and Director of External Affairs. Kim has a JD with a concentration in health law and an MA in legislative affairs. 

As a senior political analyst for CNN and opinion columnist, Ron Brownstein produces sharp analysis on politics, policy, the electorate, media, healthcare, and the range of issues informed by his strong sense of American political and national history.

Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Brownstein was cited for “the clarity, consistency, and quality of his political reporting.” Brownstein has been called “the sharpest observer of American’s political divides” and “an exemplar of a better way,” in an acclaimed feature piece by The Washington Post.

Brownstein also served as the national political correspondent and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. In his years at the Times, he earned two finalist nods from the Pulitzer Prize Board for his coverage of the 1996 and 2004 presidential elections. He has appeared frequently on Meet the Press, This Week with George Stephanopolous, Face the Nation, The Newshour, and Washington Week in Review. He has also served as an election analyst for ABC.

Brownstein is the author or editor of seven books. His previous book, Reagan’s Ruling Class: Portraits of the President’s Top 100 Officials, was a Washington Post bestseller for five weeks.

His articles on politics, public policy, books and culture have also appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Washington Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and The Chicago Sun-Times.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin has an esteemed record as a researcher and policy adviser. Currently he is the President of the American Action Forum and Distinguished Fellow at the Daniels School of Business, Purdue University. Having been involved in policy, politics, academia, and government, he is unique in his diverse, multifaceted economic background and offers audiences a 360-degree view of the economy.

Holtz-Eakin is funny, lively, and humorous as he breaks down complicated issues in his candid presentations and uses everyday examples and anecdotes to illustrate what the future holds for tax policy, budget outlook, energy issues, healthcare, financial reform, and more. A distinguished economic advisor, academic, and strategist, he is skilled at forecasting policy changes on the horizon and recommending sound strategies for mitigating risk to your industry. He is exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau.

In 1989 and 1990 he was senior economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he subsequently served as chief economist in 2001 and 2002. He was the sixth director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2003 to 2005 and then became director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. During 2007 and 2008, he was director of domestic and economic policy for the John McCain presidential campaign.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin was a commissioner on the congressionally chartered Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, serves on the boards of the Tax Foundation and National Academy of Social Insurance, and is a member of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group.