Wendy Lipton-Dibner – President & CEO of Professional Impact and Author of What Matters Matters Most When you focus on impact, the money comes. Wendy Lipton-Dibner, M.A., is widely regarded as a leading authority on organizational development through strategic and operational impact. A multiple-time bestselling author, sought-after strategist, and serial entrepreneur, she is known for helping organizations increase profitability by maximizing the real-world impact they create for all stakeholders. As President, Founder, and CEO of Professional Impact, Inc., Wendy developed Organizational Impact Strategy, invented Real-World Impact Metrics, and created the Journey of Impact app. Her work has helped thousands of leaders across enterprise, healthcare, small business, and nonprofit sectors improve team effectiveness and revenue by focusing on measurable impact in people’s lives. She serves as a trusted advisor to professionals and influencers across a wide range of industries, from healthcare and finance to technology, hospitality, and e-commerce, and is internationally recognized as a dynamic speaker whose keynotes, trainings, and programs have reached millions. Her strategies have been praised by Forbes® as “The Secret to Success in Business” and by Inc.® as “Your path to profitable impact.” Wendy began her academic journey with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Southern Connecticut State College and later entered the PhD program at Duke University, where she studied sociology, psychology, and social research. During her time there, she conducted and presented groundbreaking research, including a master’s thesis exploring the relationship between social class, school attachment, and delinquency. She was later recruited to manage a major research study at Texas Christian University, where she taught sociology, oversaw multiple evaluation studies, and published academic work. Her research team was even invited to present findings to the United States Senate, an experience that profoundly shaped her perspective on the tension between financial priorities and meaningful outcomes. This moment sparked a defining question that would guide her career: what if organizations prioritized impact over income? Motivated by this idea, Wendy left academia to launch her own business, designed as a real-world laboratory to test her hypothesis. Within six months, her company broke industry revenue records by making measurable impact its top priority. Her success led to widespread consulting opportunities, and she went on to refine and apply her strategies across numerous industries with transformative results. After selling her business, she expanded her work nationwide, gaining certifications in multiple schools of psychology and building a psychotherapy practice focused on helping sales professionals succeed through impact-driven approaches. Over time, she developed proprietary formulas—many copyrighted, trademarked, or patented – that consistently delivered high performance, customer loyalty, and revenue growth. Wendy has built multiple businesses, authored bestselling books used in organizations and academic institutions, and contributed extensively to business, healthcare, and social science publications. Known for her relentless drive and creativity, she attributes her success to a simple philosophy: Focus On Impact®. Each day, she challenges herself to expand her influence and continue her Journey of Impact, fueled by gratitude for the people and experiences that have shaped her life, including her enduring partnership with her husband, Dr. Hal Dibner. Ali Hafizji – CEO of Wednesday Solutions What matters most is your decision making capability… do you trust insights that the market reveals to you, or do you make decisions based on what somebody else is doing. Ali Hafizji is one of the creators of Traction, a live startup simulation that exposes real founder decision-making under constraint, and CEO of Wednesday, an AI-native product engineering company which has worked with multiple unicorns. Traction compresses months of early-stage chaos into a live experience. Founders and early team members operate inside the same simulated company, sharing limited resources and competing priorities, with one goal: attract paid users. What makes Traction different is what happens after the simulation. Participants are evaluated against the same behaviors and metrics consistently seen in teams that reach product-market fit, revealing the gap between stated intent and real decisions. Instead of interviews, advice, or frameworks, Traction reveals behavior.
