Biographical note

John Buford, PhD served as a Marine Corps Officer for over 20 years, conducting operations overseas and teaching at officer training schools. After retiring from the Marines, John earned a doctoral degree in education, performance improvement specialization and became a certified wilderness medicine instructor, college professor, and outdoor educator. He is a certified leadership coach, professional wilderness guide, whitewater kayak/canoe and sea kayak instructor, human performance consultant, and board member of several non-profit organizations. Sean Georges, JD, LLM is a Naval Academy graduate who served in the Marine Corps for 13 years, the bulk of them as a military lawyer. He earned a law degree from the University of Illinois and an advanced law degree from the Judge Advocate General's School at the University of Virginia. For the past 22 years, he has served as the senior vice president of human resources and general counsel for a publicly traded retailer with 380 stores and over 5,000 employees. Sean serves on a variety of non-profit boards and recently presented his perspectives on leadership in a TEDx Talk, "The Essence of Authentic Leadership," which has been viewed on YouTube nearly 30,000 times. He is a leadership coach and mentor and a frequent public speaker on leadership.