Kelly Lucente started her career at Colle+McVoy, one of the most respected creative agencies in the country, then moved to Rollerblade where she was part of the marketing team that helped transform the brand into a billion-dollar lifestyle sport. She spent fourteen years in national homebuilding with Pulte, Ryland, and Mattamy Homes, becoming one of the top-ranked salespeople in the country and earning NAHB Salesperson of the Year. In 2011, she founded RE-TOOL®, a branding agency that has served Fortune 500 brands including RE/MAX and Pearle Vision. She has 32 career awards across brand, marketing, design, sales, and product innovation. She is the creator of RE-MARKABILITY® and RE-DNA®, author of The RE-MARKABILITY Formula launching this summer, and a 2026 Minnesota Cup semifinalist.

Greg Zimprich spent nearly twenty years at General Mills directing brand PR, then led global business communications at Honeywell before moving to Medtronic as Senior Director of Finance Communications. He earned his APR accreditation in 2003 and was elected to the PRSA College of Fellows in 2015, a distinction held by fewer than 350 professionals in the history of public relations. He served as president of the Minnesota PRSA chapter, sat on the board for five terms, and has spoken at the PRSA International Conference. He holds an MA in Mass Communications from Marquette University and now teaches strategic communications at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Katie Vannelli joined the Minnesota Wild in 2008 and has spent seventeen years rising through creative and strategic roles to her current position as Director of Revenue Marketing. She led a partnership with the Carlson School’s MSBA program that uncovered $1.6 million in potential revenue through customer analytics. She co-created “Women of the North,” the Wild’s professional development initiative connecting female business owners and leaders across the Twin Cities. She holds a BA in Art and Graphic Design from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and has built her career at the intersection of brand strategy, data, design, and audience engagement inside one of Minnesota’s most recognized organizations.

Nikky Phinyawatana grew up in Bangkok, earned her BBA in Entrepreneurial Studies and Marketing from Babson College, trained at El Centro College Culinary School in Dallas, and opened her first Asian Mint in 2004. She now runs five restaurant locations across Dallas, published the award-winning cookbook Thai Food and Travel with Chef Nikky in 2024, and launched a signature sauce line available at Central Market. She serves as president of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, VP of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, and board trustee of the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation. Her work has been recognized by USA Today, Zagat, D Magazine, the James Beard House Foundation, and the Women That Soar Award for Business of the Year.

Nikki Rohloff is the managing partner of Rohloff Associates, a Twin Cities based CPA firm she has led for over twenty years. She double-majored in Accounting and Sociology at UW-River Falls, and that combination shows up in how she runs her firm: she eliminated the billable hour, restructured around client relationships, and built a team culture most CPA firms wouldn’t recognize. She served as 2024 president of NAWBO-MN and has been recognized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. She was the first organizational leader to deploy RE-MARKABILITY® and the RE-DNA® assessment across a full team, and her experience is the foundation of the RE-MARKABLE TEAM™ program.

Kristi Hughes is a Certified Wine Professional and the founder of The Fermented Experience and The Fermented Connection, based in St. Paul. She curates immersive destination wine experiences across the country, from Oregon to Washington to California, for people who want more from wine than a tasting room visit. She previously worked in wine distribution and import with Domace Vino and Amara Wines, and is currently pursuing her WSET Level 3 Advanced Certification. She also organizes the annual Cruise Against Cancer charity event on the St. Croix River, raising funds for local cancer patients across Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Janet Phipps, MBA, ACC, is the founder of NorthStar Mindset Coaching and an executive coach with more than thirty years of experience inside high-stakes organizations and high-pressure decisions. She is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, a Presence-Based Coaching Core Practitioner, a Certified Hogan Assessments practitioner, and an authorized partner of Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors®. Before launching NorthStar, she led program and organizational change for enterprise-level initiatives at major financial services firms. She works with executives and teams who are ready to stop surviving their roles and start owning them. She recently spoke at the Fearless Women Summit Twin Cities, where the room went quiet from her first word, and at Evolve 2025 in Eau Claire.

Shea Graves is the founder and CEO of Shuffle House, a female-led collective of over thirty DJs, musicians, and event producers based in Arizona. She got her name from her earlier career as a mixologist, realized she and the DJ had the same job (get the room moving), and picked up the decks. She has spent more than two decades behind them, playing corporate events, brand activations, galas, and private events across the country. Shuffle House now operates as a full-service entertainment company handling sound, live musicians, silent discos, and branded experiences.