Speakers

Henry Hays is Baton Rouge born and Louisiana proud. He comes to us today as an accomplished businessman, founder and keynote speaker. Henry spent 20 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, most notably building the commercial team at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, where he reached peak sales of $110 million a year. Avanir was then purchased for a 35 times multiple ($3.5 billion in cash). Henry pivoted to Disrupt himself at that point, with his new mission being spreading the power of Disruption coming to all aspects of business around the world. Henry graduated LSU in 1995 with a Poli Sci and History major, and holds his MBA from Seth Godin's altMBA. He owns Henry Hays Consulting, is co-founder of DisruptReady and was the founder of MatchPoint Connection.

A visionary leader, entrepreneur, business accelerator, investor, philanthropist and industry futurist, Zain Raj is considered a global leader in finding new and different ways to grow brands. His unique ability to unearth surprising insights and incite inspired ideas has created billions of dollars of value for his clients and investors. Currently, Zain is the Chairman and CEO of Shapiro+Raj, a top-ten independent insights and inspiration company in North America. He is also the founder and CEO of ZedNext, an ideas incubator that takes an objective and disruptive look at trends to help marketers and business leaders realize their full potential in this data-driven, digitally-led and insights-driven world. His theories and methodologies provide clear and actionable ways to help companies deliver sustainable growth through these times of significant economic and cultural change. He has authored two Amazon marketing and sales bestsellers, Brand Rituals™: How Successful Brands Bond with Customers for Life and Marketing For Tomorrow, Not Yesterday: Surviving and Thriving in the Insight Economy™. An evangelist for innovation and a strong believer in empowering others, Zain is a sought-after speaker on how marketers can build their businesses and improve their brand value in this evolving landscape of big-data, mobility, digitization and commoditization. He contributes his insights to The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast Company, Forbes, Crain’s and publications of the nation’s top business schools.