Visionary Leadership Summit

Simon is a spark that ignites passion and ideas. He envisions a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they are, and end the day fulfilled by the work they do. As an unshakeable optimist, he believes in our ability to build this world together.

In 2021, Simon founded The Curve, a diverse group of forward-thinking chiefs and sheriffs committed to modernizing policing from the inside-out. Their purpose is to build a profession dedicated to protecting the vulnerable from harm while advancing a vision of a world in which all people feel justice is administered with dignity, equity, and fairness.

Paul exists to find and feed the spark in us, so that, together, we can lead our own legacy. He met Simon Sinek in 2010 at the USAF Weapons School. Paul deeply identified with Start With WHY and the fact that the ideas in Simon’s book can be taught. Simon and Paul worked together on several projects, including teaching Leadership Communications and helping the Weapons School find and define its own WHY. Paul spent 25 years in the Air Force culminating in a role leading the U-28 course at the Weapons School. Most of all, Paul is stoked to serve the Veteran Community.

Gordon is a retired SEAL officer and the Head Coach for the Junior Men’s Varsity Crew program at San Diego Rowing Club. In 2003, Gordon earned a commission in the Navy from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis where he was a three-time Varsity letter winner with the heavyweight crew team. After initially serving for two and a half years as a Surface Warfare Officer onboard a 4000-ton Oliver Hazard Perry-Class frigate, Gordon was selected to attend basic SEAL training and was designated as a SEAL Officer in 2007.  

Until his retirement in 2023, Gordon served at four different SEAL teams in various small-unit leadership roles which included fifty-two total months in nine separate overseas deployments. These deployments included shipboard cruises to the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia, as well as seven combat tours in theaters including Iraq, Afghanistan, East Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. In his final assignment on active duty, Gordon developed and taught three different combat leadership courses for young SEAL officers and senior enlisted leaders. Gordon is married to the former Melissa Heller of Eden Prairie, MN and together they have two children.

The $500 billion beauty industry may have no shortage of innovative leaders, but it’s hard to believe that many can match the drive and vision of Karissa Bodnar, the 34-year-old CEO of Thrive Causemetics, a direct-to-consumer brand. Raised on a farm in Washington, Bodnar spent much of her childhood with her nose in beauty magazines and Bobbi Brown books. At the age of 18, she became a makeup artist at a local Sephora store. By the time she turned 20, she had secured a marketing assistant role at a company later acquired by L’Oreal. However, a tragic event that altered her life’s course—a dear friend’s battle with a rare form of cancer—prompted her to establish Thrive Causemetics in 2015. The brand’s focus on vegan and clean beauty products, designed to be gentle on the human immune system, became Bodnar’s mission.

In just five years, Thrive Causemetics was generating $150 million in annual revenue in an industry known for its fierce competition. Reflecting on this achievement, Bodnar admits that she is still coming to terms with it. “I discovered my true purpose in the transformative power of beauty—whether it’s makeup, skincare, or hair care—and how it instills confidence in people,” Bodnar shares with Simon in the latest episode of A Bit of Optimism.  “I firmly believe that confidence makes us unstoppable. But I never thought I would have founded a beauty company. The purpose behind Thrive Causemetics was so much bigger than anything I had thought of.”