Exchange Gathering

John C. Maxwell is an internationally renowned leadership expert, coach, and author who has sold over 21 million books. Dr. Maxwell founded EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, organizations that have trained more than 5 million leaders in 174 countries. Every year he speaks to Fortune 100 companies, international government leaders, and organizations such as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership has sold more than 2 million copies. Developing the Leader Within You and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader have each sold more than 1 million copies.

You can read his blog at JohnMaxwellOnLeadership.com, follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell, and learn more about him at JohnMaxwell.com.

Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and the chairman of the board for Willow Creek Association. He convened The Global Leadership Summit in 1995, following a God-given prompting to help raise and develop the spiritual gift of leadership for the local church.

Both visionary and passionate about seeing every local church reach its full God-given potential, he speaks around the world on strategic issues related to leadership, evangelism, and church growth. An exceptional communicator, he is a best-selling author of more than 20 books, including Axiom, Holy Discontent, Just Walk Across the Room, The Volunteer Revolution, Courageous Leadership and the newly released, The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God and Having the Guts to Respond.

Bill received a bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College in Deerfield, IL. He and his wife, Lynne, have two adult children and two grandson.

Peter Holmberg was born and raised on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.  His father was stationed there in the 50’s while serving in the US Navy on submarines, and later returned for his honeymoon, never to leave.  Peter attended local schools, and the College of the Virgin Islands, before going off island and receiving his BS in Business Management from Sonoma State University in California.

Peter learned to sail at age five on a Sunfish and began racing internationally at age nine.  After setting his sights on the Olympics and spending many years training locally in the Virgin Islands, Peter won the Silver Medal in the Finn Class at the 1988 Olympics in Korea.  This is the first and only Olympic Medal ever won by the Virgin Islands.

After winning the Olympic Medal, Peter began racing as a professional sailor and has since gone on to win numerous World Championships and international events around the world.  Peter later shifted his focus to the discipline of Match Racing and won the 2002 World Match Racing Tour and the #1 World ranking. 

In 1996 Peter formed the Virgin Islands America's Cup Foundation.  This was an ambitious endeavor with a goal of not only challenging for the America's Cup, but of re-uniting Virgin Islanders with the sea and promoting water sports and careers.  The Foundation raised several million dollars, gained international acclaim, and taught hundreds of residents to swim and sail through a public marine program.  But unable to raise the minimum budget needed to build an IACC yacht and compete, they ultimately merged with Team Dennis Conner.  Peter went on to race in the afterguard of Stars & Stripes in the 2000 America's Cup Challenger Series where they finished third.  Peter then joined the Oracle-BMW team as helmsman and finished second in the 2003 America’s Cup Challenger Series.  Following this, Peter joined the Swiss team Alinghi, where they won the 2007 Americas Cup in Valencia, Spain.

Peter now bases himself in St. Thomas and works as an independent professional sailor for various teams around the world.  He is President of the Caribbean Sailing Association, and a past Commodore of the St. Thomas Yacht Club.  Through his efforts of representing the Virgin Islands around the world, Peter hopes to encourage more Virgin Islanders to pursue excellence in sports and to enjoy, utilize, and respect the waters around them.

Dennis Conner is the world’s most successful Americas Cup Skipper, a four time winner of the America’s Cup.  Winner of more than 100 America’s Cup Trial races, Conner won the America’s Cup in 1974, 1980, 1987 and 1988. He also made it to the America’s Cup finals in 1983 and 1995. Conner is actively involved in the planning, organizing, fund-raising, design, staffing and public relations of his America’s Cup Campaigns. No skipper has been more successful in the modern America’s Cup in putting together his own campaigns. In his most recent challenge in 2003 he lead his team thorough an unprecedented Ninth America’s Cup campaign. He challengedfor America’s Cup 2003 through the prestigious New York Yacht Club.

Conner has won two Star World Championships, two Etchells World Championships, two Congressional Cups and four Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) victories.  In Kiel, West Germany, in 1977, he established a Star class record that has never been equaled, scoring five consecutive first place finishes against 89 boats.  Dennis Conner regards this record in particular as one of his greatest sailing accomplishments.

In the 1976 Olympic Games, Conner won a bronze medal for the United States in the Tempest class.  He has also been twice a member of the U.S. Admiral’s Cup Team and participated in the historic 1979 Fastnet Race that met with disaster in a Force 10 storm.

Conner’s most recent accolades include being inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the Americas Cup Hall Of Fame and  the US National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Conner has led two entries in the Whitbread Round The World Race, both in 1993-94 with Winston and in 1997-98 with Toshiba. Prior to the Whitbread In 1993, Conner set a new Trans-Atlantic record with Winston.  Until Conner’s attempt, the record had been held since 1905, then set by the 150-foot Atlantic.  Conner averaged 11 knots in his Whitbread-60 Winston in the Gold Cup race, setting the new record at 11 days and 8 hours. Conner also won the Australian National Etchells-22Championship that same year.

In 1987, Conner combined his passion for sailing with his talent for business by starting Dennis Conner Sports, Inc.  Over the years, he has worked with hundreds of major corporate clients on product endorsements, sailing events and sponsorships.

Conner grew up in San Diego, raised near the San Diego Yacht Club which he joined at age 11.  He has been a member of the SDYC for over forty years and has served on the SDYC Board of Directors for nine years. He studied business at San Diego State University and lives with his wife Daintry in San Diego, California.