Sentry School of Business and Economics

Based on his decades of experience working with CEOs, executive teams and boards, Ken Favaro has written Real Strategy; published in 2024, the book is a no-nonsense guide to the most difficult questions about strategy. Favaro has also co-developed a new approach to innovation known as “Precedents Thinking” which was featured in the Harvard Business Review in 2025.

Liz Nilsen is associate director of the Agile Strategy Lab at the University of North Alabama, director of operations of the Strategic Doing Institute and co-author of the award-winning 2019 book, Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership.

University of Chicago professor of economics, Walmart chief economist and UW-Stevens Point Distinguished Alumnus John List ’92 returned to campus March 3-4, 2022, to speak about his experiences of scaling great ideas and shared stories from the White House and Chicago Heights schools to Uber and Lift.

Bethany McLean, journalist at Vanity Fair and CNBC, presented “Why Business Goes Bad: Lessons from 20 years of covering frauds, scams and other disasters.” McLean is credited with exposing the Enron scandal and has covered stories about Valeant, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae and the energy revolution.