2026: A Year in Preview

07:15 AM - 08:15 AM ET

Registration and Networking Breakfast

08:15 AM - 08:25 AM ET

Opening Remarks

AnnaMaria DeSalva, Principal, Invenire 2050 LLC;, Former Global Chairman, Burson

08:25 AM - 09:00 AM ET

Mastering the Unpredictable: Strategy When the Rules Keep Changing

This cross-sector dialogue explores how CEOs are rewriting the strategic playbook—allocating capital between AI investments and core operations, pursuing growth while managing geoeconomic fragmentation and escalating trade tensions, and turning disruption into competitive advantage. How can business leaders maintain strategic clarity and make wise decisions when traditional planning horizons have collapsed, tariffs are reshaping supply chains, and uncertainty has become the defining feature of the business environment?

Peter Orszag, CEO and Chairman, Lazard

Sebastian Guth, Worldwide Chief Operating Officer, Bayer Pharmaceuticals and President of, Bayer U.S.

Tom Wilson, Chair, President and CEO, The Allstate Corporation

Steve Odland, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Conference Board

09:00 AM - 09:20 AM ET

2026 Business Forecast: The Forces Defining Global Leadership

A high-level forecast of the pressing challenges facing global business leaders in 2026, including fears of a potential recession, geopolitical instability, and AI disruption.

Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist and Leader, Economy, Strategy & Finance Center, The Conference Board

Clifford Young, Chair, Ipsos Public Affairs and Strategic Insights

09:20 AM - 09:55 AM ET

Human x Machine: The Workforce Strategy Every Leader Needs Now

As technology accelerates and global change reshapes the workplace, how can leaders stay ahead? This conversation—featuring The Conference Board, Deloitte, and top executives—unpacks exclusive insights from the C-Suite Outlook 2026 and Deloitte’s forthcoming Global Human Capital Trends 2026. Discover how forward-thinking CEOs and CHROs are reimagining people strategy for a new era of growth, resilience, and innovation, where work is redesigned to maximize the unique capabilities of humans and machines to drive new sources of business outcomes.

Kyle Forrest, Future of HR Leader, Deloitte

Diana Scott, US Human Capital Center Leader, The Conference Board

09:55 AM - 10:10 AM ET

Where Work Works: Environments that Unlock Performance and Collaboration

Elizabeth Brink, Co-CEO of Gensler, the world's largest architecture and design firm, shares her company’s latest thinking on workplace environments that drive peak performance, support digital transformation and collaboration, and adapt to hybrid work models.

Elizabeth Brink, Co-CEO, Gensler

10:10 AM - 10:35 AM ET

Meet and Connect

10:35 AM - 11:00 AM ET

The Debt Reckoning: How U.S. Fiscal Trajectories Will Shape Business Strategy

The country's long-term fiscal trajectory could fundamentally reshape how businesses operate. Rising debt levels, escalating interest costs, and unsustainable entitlement spending threaten to crowd out productive investment and slow economic growth. How will today's fiscal policy decisions affect corporate strategy, capital costs, and competitive positioning in the years ahead? What are the solutions that could secure America's economic future and how will addressing these issues create opportunities for sustained growth and competitiveness?

Michael Peterson, Chairman and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation

David K. Young, President, Committee for Economic Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board (CED)

11:00 AM - 11:10 AM ET

Why Yesterday’s Boards Won’t Survive 2026

James Drury Partners' founder discusses the 2026 rankings of America's strongest corporate boards and what defines governance capacity today.

Steven J. Lewis, Co-Managing Director, James Drury Partners

Brian Campbell, Center Leader, US Governance & Sustainability Center, The Conference Board

11:10 AM - 11:50 AM ET

Boardroom Blind Spots: What CEOs Need to Know Now

Boards are facing heightened scrutiny and workloads as shareholder activism, emerging AI governance frameworks, and regulatory uncertainty reshape boardroom priorities and oversight responsibilities. Directors are sharpening expectations of management as strategic, technological, and regulatory pressures accelerate. This session examines how boards are recalibrating governance in practice, and what the C-suite should know to engage boards effectively and support decision-making in a more challenging environment.

Brian Campbell, Center Leader, US Governance & Sustainability Center, The Conference Board

Ellen Kullman, Chair of the Board of Directors, Carbon, and Board Member, Amgen, Dell, & Goldman Sachs

Karen Silverman, CEO and Founder, Cantellus Group

AnnaMaria DeSalva, Principal, Invenire 2050 LLC;, Former Global Chairman, Burson

11:50 AM - 12:00 PM ET

The First Read: What Matters from This Morning

Ivan Pollard, Marketing & Communications Center Leader, The Conference Board

12:00 PM - 01:30 PM ET

Lunch

01:30 PM - 01:35 PM ET

Afternoon Outlook

Ivan Pollard, Marketing & Communications Center Leader, The Conference Board

01:35 PM - 01:55 PM ET

From Vision to Velocity: Leading Through 2026

What should be top of mind for business leaders as they translate strategy into action for 2026?

Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist and Leader, Economy, Strategy & Finance Center, The Conference Board

Clifford Young, Chair, Ipsos Public Affairs and Strategic Insights

01:55 PM - 02:25 PM ET

Competing at Digital Speed

Businesses born in the digital age offer valuable lessons on AI adoption, rapid scaling, and public markets for corporate leaders across industries. Circle—a leading fintech with over $70 billion in circulation—stands at the intersection of payments, blockchain, and AI-driven financial innovation. The company's co-founder, chairman, and CEO shares his firsthand expertise building successful digitally native companies. From integrating transformational technologies at speed to making critical decisions with incomplete information, and maintaining organizational agility through continuous disruption.

Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, Circle

Ivan Pollard, Marketing & Communications Center Leader, The Conference Board

02:25 PM - 03:05 PM ET

Leading in Overdrive: The New Reality for Today’s CEO

Complexity, disruption, and the need for faster decision-making are turning modern-day CEOs into multitaskers. Combined with intensifying stakeholder expectations, heightened public scrutiny, and demands for transparency, these forces are expanding the leadership mandate and reshaping what successful leadership looks like. A panel of CEOs with track records of exceptional outcomes share how they are meeting the moment—operating at speed, communicating with clarity, and bringing their organizations along with them.

Karen Brennan, CEO, Leasing Advisory, JLL

Meredith Wilson, CEO, Emergent Risk International

Catherine Clay, Chief Executive Officer, S&P Dow Jones Indices

Nathan Rosenberg, Partner, Insigniam, An Elixirr Company

03:05 PM - 03:30 PM ET

Meet and Connect

03:30 PM - 03:55 PM ET

Volatility Ahead: How Leaders Make Smart Capital Moves Now

In a business climate where capital allocation decisions are increasingly constrained by geopolitical and economic policies, as well as profound technological shifts, business leaders face critical questions about where and how to deploy resources for growth. Traditional assumptions about market stability and borderless capital flows are being challenged as investors reassess risk, diversify across regions, and seek to deploy assets in companies with proven agility and resilience. George Walker, CEO of Neuberger Berman, one of the world's leading independent asset management firms, shares his insights on capital markets, investment allocation, and the macro forces shaping executive decision-making in 2026.

George Walker, Chairman and CEO, Neuberger Berman

Jamie Heller, Editor in Chief, Business Insider

03:55 PM - 04:20 PM ET

Midterms 2026: Capitalism on the Ballot

The 2026 midterms will influence capital costs, trade decisions, and the policy signals that shape economic confidence. With rate moves under debate, tariffs shifting, and a market lifted by AI enthusiasm despite deeper structural concerns, the stakes are rising. An examination of the political forces driving the year ahead and how their outcomes may redirect the economic landscape that business depends on.

Tom Bevan, Co-Founder and President, RealClearPolitics

Robert Cahaly, Chief Pollster and Founder, The Trafalgar Group

David K. Young, President, Committee for Economic Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board (CED)

04:20 PM - 04:30 PM ET

The C-Suite Outlook: The Last Take

Steve Odland, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Conference Board

04:30 PM - 05:30 PM ET

Networking Reception