Bob Rich first learned the art of storytelling around campfires at summer camps in northern Ontario, Canada. Growing up, reading Hemingway inspired him to write. Living on the shores of Lake Erie and the Florida Keys provide him with an abundance of his own tales to tell. He is the author of four books: Catching Big Fish, The Right Angle, Why We Fish, and Looking Through Water, the latter having been made into a film. He is the coauthor of Secrets from the Delphi Café.

Scott Friedman is a partner at Lippes Mathias LLP, where he served for thirty years as managing partner and later as chairman, and now advises start-ups, venture capital firms, and family businesses in the US and internationally. He is also the co-founder and managing director of Varia Ventures and a co-founder and general partner of Impact Capital of New York, supporting innovative and early-stage companies. The author of seven books and more than one hundred articles, he is a frequent national speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation, and family enterprise.

Mike Pehanich is the former editor of the Redbone Journal, industry consultant, speaker and frequent contributor to outdoor radio and television. His features and perspectives on fishing, the tackle industry, and conservation and fisheries management have appeared in more than thirty outdoor publications including In-Fisherman, Outdoor Life, Bassmaster, Bass Times, Game & Fish, Fishing Tackle Retailer, Great Lakes Angler and MLF's Bass Fishing magazine. He is the author of the recently released River at Risk: A Fisherman's View of Life Anew in Post-Soviet Russia, a sportsman's journey through a little-known Russia with detours through its near and distant past.