Chris Gardner is an entrepreneur, international best-selling author and an award-winning film producer. Gardner’s autobiography, The Pursuit of HappYness became a New York Times #1 best seller and has been translated into over forty languages, including six (6) dialects of Chinese and recently into Arabic. Gardner’s book, The Pursuit of HappYness was the inspiration for the critically acclaimed film in which Will Smith received the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations for his performance. His second book, “Start Where You Are” also a best seller was published in 2009. Gardner’s new book “Permission to Dream” was selected as “Book Of The Month” by the Wall Street Journal upon its publication.

After close to forty years on Wall Street, Mr. Gardner had to answer a very important question which was, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life? Do you retire or REWIRE?” Mr. Gardner chose to “REWIRE.” The difference is, “when you retire you stop doing what you used to do. When you REWIRE you do what you want to do!”

Mr. Gardner is currently, in his words, “making a huge alternative investment” in human capital. This investment has had him speak at over 500 schools on three (3) different continents. He is conducting his Permission 2 Dream Tour. He believes that “what CAN be, needs to be as much a part of the conversation as what can NOT be.” Mr. Gardner believes that “DREAMS don’t have BORDERS.” He continues to be active in private equity investments with a focus on brand protection and fintech.