MEET THE SPEAKERS

Richard J. Bryan is a leadership coach, keynote speaker, and former CEO who helps business owners grow companies worth leading - and worth leaving. At 28, he stepped into a 100-year-old, $120M family business that was losing $3.5M a year. With the support of an inspirational mentor, he led a turnaround, scaled the business, and eventually navigated a successful exit.

Today, Richard coaches a select group of growth-minded CEOs and speaks internationally about building A-player teams, installing systems for sustainable growth, and reducing owner dependency. Through his firm, The Bryan Group Inc, he shares real-world lessons and actionable frameworks with leaders who want to scale without burning out.
Originally from the UK, Richard now lives in Colorado with his wife Melissa. He’s a proud father, avid skier and golfer, passionate traveler, and lifelong learner who believes that businesses grow when their leaders do.
He’s excited to connect with the Small Giants community who lead with purpose and people first.

Carl Churchill, the Chief Coffee Officer at Alpha Coffee, and his wife Lori, the Duchess of Coffee, started their business 15 years ago in their basement with their two teenage kids as their first unpaid employees. Today Team Alpha is made up of 32 employees, offers online subscription and retail, wholesale, and has two of the highest rated coffee shops in Salt Lake City. Through their Grounds for Good Program, they’ve donated over $150k to charities. Carl is also a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who earned a Bronze Star in Iraq and holds an Executive MBA from the University of Utah Eccles School of Business.

Sean has lived in Charlotte, NC for 40+ years, grew up a baseball player and played at UNC before being drafted by the Oakland A's in 2003. Sean joined his dad's family business while rehabbing an injury that never got fixed and fell in love with sales and business. QDS has grown from a 2M business in 2003 to just under 50M in 2025. Sean has been married 20 years to his amazing wife Kristie and has 3 boys, CJ (12) and twins Beau and Christian (7).

Sana Gabula is a leader at the intersection of education, data, and technology with experience in scaling mission-driven organizations. She currently serves as Head of Operations at Goalbook, and has worked across classroom education as a Teach For India Fellow, education consulting with McKinsey, and senior leadership roles at education technology organizations. Sana brings a systems-level perspective to improving learning outcomes and organizational effectiveness, and holds an engineering degree from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Kornel Grygo is the Chief Executive Officer and Operating Partner at Tasty Catering, a Leading Caterers of America company serving the greater Chicagoland area. With more than 18 years at Tasty, Kornel began his career in business development, customer relations, and logistics before stepping into executive leadership. His approach is rooted in the belief that strong organizations are built on character.

Kornel proudly carries forward the culture established by Founder and former CEO Tom Walter—one grounded in trust, transparency, and shared success. Under his leadership, Tasty continues to operate as an open-book, values-driven company where every employee is trained in business literacy, participates in weekly financial huddles, and is empowered to make independent decisions guided by the company’s core values. This model cultivates ownership thinking, professional growth, and a unified commitment to exceptional hospitality.
Born in Poland, Kornel is fluent in English, Polish, and conversational in Spanish. He holds a B.S. in Business from the University of Illinois at Chicago and serves on the Board of Directors for the Better Business Bureau of Chicago.

Furkan Amil Gur is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management at Northern Illinois University and he is also the lead faculty for entrepreneurship and innovation in the college. He received his PhD in Management from Louisiana State University. Furkan has worked in the advertising industry and started two entrepreneurial businesses before his academic career. He helped more than 150 student businesses and provides consulting to local, national, and international several startups. Furkan's research has been published in top management and entrepreneurship journals. Furkan has also received various accolades for his teaching. Furkan is married and has two daughters.

Brandy Hall is the Founder & CEO of Shades of Green Permaculture, a sustainable landscape company and certified B Corp named to Inc.’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in 2025. Since founding the company in 2008, she has led a team of 20 in working with thousands of clients to design and build regenerative, resilient landscapes. With nearly two decades of experience as a general contractor, stone mason, and educator, Brandy is recognized nationally as “part of a new guard of landscape designers” (Garden & Gun) and her first book, The Complete Guide to Home Permaculture, will be published in January 2026. She also serves as Mayor of Pine Lake, GA, and enjoys spending time outdoors with her daughter.

Brad Herrmann is the founder and president of Text-Em-All, a mass texting company that provides solutions to over 15,000 clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small churches. Founded in 2005 and employee owned since 2023, Text-Em-All is Certified Evergreen and has been recognized on Forbes’ 25 Best Small Companies, the Inc. 500 list as well as local and national Best Places to Work lists. Brad is a Texas A&M graduate with a passion for healthy company culture, employee ownership, gardening, playing sports, travel, learning and generally just having fun.

Chris Hutchinson is CEO and Abundance Influencer of Trebuchet Group – an organizational improvement firm that helps teams get breakthrough performance. Chris has over 30 years of experience as a leader, facilitator, leadership mentor, and coach of leaders and teams in military, public, and private companies and not-for-profit organizations. His education includes a degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA. He is a Distinguished Toastmaster and a sought-after speaker. Chris is the author of a practical leadership book, Ripple - a Field Manual for Leadership that Works.

Ron leads marketing at Text-Em-All, where he drives revenue growth by owning the full customer journey—from first touch through long-term retention. He blends deep customer analysis with hands-on execution, turning insights about behavior, usage, and churn into clear improvements across messaging, product workflows, onboarding, and lifecycle programs.

With 30 years in marketing and nearly two decades in telecom, Ron specializes in uncovering what drives adoption, expansion, and loyalty in complex environments. He focuses on making the product’s value immediately clear, optimizing trial-to-paid conversion, and designing experiences that reduce friction and increase engagement at every stage. He works closely with product, sales, and support to ensure growth is grounded in real customer behavior and long-term success—not just top-of-funnel activity.

He’s known for challenging assumptions, simplifying complexity, and finding practical ways to get results—especially when others can’t or won’t. Ron is crazy about fishing, travel, loves a great old-fashioned, and lives in Frisco, TX.

Scott Jeffrey Miller is a highly sought-after speaker and moderator and an 9X Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling author.

Scott was a twenty-eight-year FranklinCovey associate, serving as Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of thought leadership, and hosted the world’s largest weekly leadership podcast, FranklinCovey’s On Leadership with Scott Miller, interviewing 500+ of the world’s most renowned thought leaders.
Scott is a founding partner in the Gray + Miller Agency, the nation’s fastest growing speaking, literary, and talent agency, with over 300 creators, authors, and artists under representation.

Nenuca Syquia is the Founder and CEO of Better Organizations by Design (BOxD), a consulting firm that helps purpose-driven organizations navigate growth, change, and complexity without losing sight of what matters most. She partners with founders and executive teams to align leadership, structure, and culture so that they can achieve their goals.

Nenuca has worked across family-owned, founder-led, and mission-driven organizations and global companies, giving her a grounded perspective on how leadership and operations must evolve as organizations scale while staying true to their north star. Her work is rooted in the belief that sustainable success comes from designing organizations that honor people, relationships, and long-term well-being alongside performance. She holds graduate degrees from Cornell University and the University of San Francisco. Outside of BOxD, she serves as a city commissioner, non-profit board member, and an advocate for responsible business.