Chris Firriolo is the Founder & President of Victory Road Leadership Development Group and has spearheaded Victory Road’s continued growth bringing Victory Road to the forefront of the global leadership development world.

For the past two decades Chris has collaborated with and built high performance teams with our nation’s industry leaders in business, education, entertainment and the collegiate and professional sports world forging an enduring partnership designed around building a culture of continuous improvement under the most demanding conditions transforming uncertainty into a competitive advantage

During a 20 year career in professional sports as a head coach, general manager and team president, Chris led two organizations to championships, received numerous Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year awards and is credited with building several successful professional expansion teams and organizations from its infant stage and guiding those ownership groups, stakeholders and senior leadership seamlessly through complex organizational expansion, growth and change.

In between Chris’ playing and coaching career, Chris became an Award-Winning Director, Writer and Producer where he founded and served as the Artistic Director of the National Stage Company and later founded and served as President of Stepping Stone Pictures.

Chris founded Victory Road on the core principle that leadership empowers all possibilities, it empowers performance, it accelerates people, and it builds extraordinary teams. This core principle along with the foundational idea great teams don’t happen by accident has become the cornerstone of Victory Road’s mission to bring together three clear functional driving forces of innovation – Leadership Development, Building Team Effectiveness and Performance Optimization to its clients as they deliberately shape greatness and become leaders in their industry.

Today Victory Road Leadership Development Group and its team members have spent the better part of the past 20 years building teams to dominate the most difficult and complex challenges known to man delivering advanced leadership solutions to driven leaders and high performance teams in the world’s most competitive environments.

Captain Tom Chaby is the former Commanding Officer of SEAL Team FIVE and has been an active duty US Navy SEAL for 26 years. Throughout his career, Tom has led special operations at every level in over 70 countries around the world. Shortly after 9/11, Tom deployed to Afghanistan leading a Task Unit of 50 SEALs and support personnel conducting special operations in support of the initial stages of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. During the latter part of the most critical fight in Fallujah, Tom led a Task Force of over 400 personnel conducting full spectrum special operations in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Earlier in his career, Tom lived in South America leading Counter Drug Operations throughout Colombia and the region. Tom’s operational experience has been extensive, diverse and extremely effective.

Outside of the operational realm, Tom has worked relentlessly with developing and ensuring performance optimization for the SEAL community and developing holistic resiliency for the entire 67,000 members that comprise the Special Operations community. During five years of being the Deputy Commanding Officer of the SEAL Training Command and a SEAL Instructor, Tom was integral in creating the current generation of SEAL operators. While directing the Preservation of the Force and Family effort, Tom helped shape programs, authorities and resources to help the entire Special Operations community build and sustain resiliency in four domains: physical, psychological, social and spiritual. His efforts have significantly improved operational readiness and the well-being of his teammates.

Over the past decade, Tom has collaborated with and spoken to and provided full spectrum consulting to 100+ high performing corporate organizations and NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, & Olympic sports teams to help them build empowering cultures and team effectiveness bringing his extensive experience and insights to the forefront of their leadership development.

Tom has helped Fortune 500 organizations become more effective, two NCAA collegiate football teams become national champions, a NCAA collegiate tennis team win the national championship, a World Series runner up, and an Eastern Conference NHL runner up. Tom has spoken to and worked with Bill Gates, Dennis Washington, the senior executive leadership teams at Morgan Stanley, FEDEX, Citi Group, JP Morgan Chase, AIG, Coach Nick Saban and the University of Alabama Football Team, Coach Jim Harbaugh and the University of Michigan Football Team, Coach Jason Garrett and the Dallas Cowboys, General Manager and Hall Of Famer Steve Yzerman and the Tampa Bay Lightning, the New York Yankees coaching staff and dozens of other high performance organizations.

Chris Howe is a former US Navy SEAL. Beginning in 2004, Chris volunteered for and completed several of the U.S. military’s most challenging training courses, to include Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/s), SEAL Qualification Training (SQT), and Special Operations Combat Medic (SOCM) training at Fort Bragg, NC. Chris then spent 4 years assigned to SEAL Team Five, Alpha Platoon, and graduated from several advanced training courses including Range Safety Officer, Diving Supervisor, and Naval Special Warfare SEAL Sniper School. He completed two overseas combat deployments in 2008 and 2010 to Fallujah and Baghdad, Iraq where he served as the Lead Sniper and Senior Medic for his 40-man Task Unit. Chris took part in 66 direct action combat missions and received multiple awards for bravery while under enemy fire, including the Joint Services Achievement Medal and Navy Commendation Medal, both with valor distinguishing devices.

After leaving the SEAL Teams in 2012, Chris worked as a private security contractor in Baghdad, Iraq, an international security and medical evacuation specialist, and a security attaché to the US Ski & Snowboard Foundation at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

Over the past 6 years Chris has been teaching leadership development and team building training to the country’s top business professionals, academic institutions, and professional and collegiate sports teams and athletes across our nation and is one of the most sought after leadership specialists in the country.

Chris has spoken to and worked with teams from the NFL, NHL, MLS, multiple Olympic athletes as well as major NCAA athletic programs and their coaching staffs like the University of Texas, Notre Dame, Florida State, Oregon, Arizona State and Harvard where he’s helped teams win two NCAA national championships. Chris has collaborated and worked with high performance corporate teams like Citi Group, AIG, T. Rowe Price, BISA, Citizens Bank, Hancock Whitney, Hilltop Securities, General Electric, Franklin Templeton, JP Morgan Chase and dozens of other high performance organizations.

Bryan Price is a passionate and driven leader with over two decades of experience building and leading teams in the military, business, academia, and the sports world.

Bryan attended West Point where he led the Army baseball team to its first-ever Patriot League Championship, garnering Tournament MVP and Division-I All-Northeast honors in the process. He was a 3-year starter at second base, and named to three All-Patriot League teams. Bryan co-captained the team as a senior, and broke multiple Army records, including hits in a season, runs scored (season and career), and consecutive games played. In 1999, he was named to the Patriot League’s All-Decade Team (1990-2000).

After graduation, Bryan was commissioned as an aviation officer in the US Army and served in multiple command and staff positions as an AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter pilot. He commanded the same company (D Trp, 2-6 CAV) for 33 months across three continents, including a 12-month tour to Afghanistan. In addition to earning Pilot-in-Command status and flying over 280 combat flight hours, Bryan’s unit supported over 10,000 flight hours during his deployment.

After company command, Bryan attended Stanford University where he earned a Ph.D. in political science in three years. Working under world-renowned terrorism expert Dr. Martha Crenshaw, he researched the effects of leadership decapitation on terrorist groups and defended his dissertation in front of former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry. Years later Bryan turned his dissertation into a book, Targeting Top Terrorists, which was published by Columbia University press in 2019. He returned to West Point as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, teaching international relations and national security.

Following a deployment to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn, Bryan was invited back to West Point to run the Combating Terrorism Center, one of the nation’s leading terrorism research centers. As the CTC Director from 2012-2018, Bryan was responsible for briefing the nation’s most senior officials on the Center’s research. This included testifying in front of Congress and briefings to the Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, and the commanders of U.S. Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations Command, and multiple geographic combatant commands. He was promoted to Academy Professor in 2014.

Beyond his CTC duties at West Point, Bryan was an assistant coach on the Army baseball team, winning a Patriot League regular-season championship and advancing to the NCAA Regional. He served as the team’s Head Officer Representative, and later worked as the color commentator on radio, broadcasting games from Camden Yards and Fenway Park. Off the field he worked with members of the Center for Enhanced Performance to improve the baseball team’s mental game.

In 2018, Bryan retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the military following a 20-year career to stand up the Buccino Leadership Institute, a four-year leadership program at Seton Hall University for competitively-selected undergraduate students.

For the past 20 years Lee Rubin has been building high performance teams in both corporate America and the collegiate and professional sports world setting the foundational cornerstone for a leadership and culture building mindset focusing on the key components to becoming an extraordinary team.

This strong core foundation of the key components of an extraordinary team was instilled early on within Lee as he was put to task by serving as the captain of the Penn State football team where he was a three-year starter, the 1994 Florida Citrus Bowl Defensive MVP, an All-Big Ten Conference selection and an Honorable Mention All-American. Lee later went on to serve as a Human Resource Executive for over 15 years building senior leadership teams for our nation’s elite corporations who have become dominate leaders in their industry.

Delivering more than 100 programs annually on team building, leadership and peak performance, Lee has emerged as one of the most engaging and sought after voices across the country with his unique ability to understand and articulate winning principles with tremendous clarity and practical application building that foundation for the nation’s top high performance organizations and teams.

Lee’s work is vast, collaborating with and speaking to industry leaders like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, AIG, Johnson & Johnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Merrill Lynch, Sony, T. Rowe Price, Citizens Financial Group and MassMutual as well as dozens of collegiate and professional sports teams and organizations across the country like two-time National Champion Penn State Football, three-time National Champion University of Florida Football, two-time Big East Champion UCONN Women’s Soccer, six-time Big Ten Champion Penn State Field Hockey, two-time National Champion Penn State Women’s Lacrosse and five-time National Champion Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey.

Travis Thomas is the Founder of Live Yes, And sharing his interactive and inspiring message of purpose, authenticity, and collaboration to audiences and companies across the US. He is currently the Leadership and Team Dynamics Coach for the United States Men’s National Soccer Team.

For over 20 years, Travis has performed as an improvisational comedian, performance coach, and corporate training specialist. His coaching practice combines the principles of improvisation and personal performance to help individuals and organizations with mindset, culture and collaboration.

Author of the book “3 Words For Getting Unstuck: Live Yes, And!”, Travis previously held the title of Leadership Specialist at the famed IMG Academy in Florida working with elite athletes from around the world as well as NFL and NBA Combine prospects.

As a performance and leadership coach Travis has worked with the top elite corporate leadership teams, professional and collegiate sports teams, and organizations across the country. Some of the high performance teams Travis works with include the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, NY Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Coach Kirby Smart and the University of Georgia Football team, Michigan State Women’s Soccer and John Hopkins Men’s Lacrosse, to name a few.

Travis’ corporate resume includes working directly with the senior leadership teams at PepsiCo, Under Armor, Gatorade, Cintas, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, AIG, Hancock Whitney, T. Rowe Price, Citizens Bank, World Insurance, Regions Bank and BISA.

Travis continues to perform on stage following his love and passion for improvisation.

Janessa Gans Wilder is a former CIA officer turned peace builder after a life-changing experience of finding hope amidst the war in Iraq where she served as a counterterrorism and counterinsurgency analyst and interrogator from 2003-2005.

Janessa is the Founder of the Euphrates Institute, a global grassroots peace-building organization. For over a decade, Janessa has provided the vision and leadership to grow the Euphrates Institute into a global network with a presence in 15 countries. She is the creator of the Visionary of the Year Program to honor, support and increase the visibility of groundbreaking change makers.

Janessa is a frequent speaker in business, government, international and educational settings. Her vast leadership experience and powerful and transformational message and insight on finding courage and opportunity in the face of adversity and the value of the strength of interconnectedness and communication has had a profound impact on organizations and the global business community around the world.

Janessa has written dozens of articles and has been interviewed by major news outlets, including FOX, CBS, CNN, Los Angeles Times, TED, and more.

Previously, Janessa taught political science at Principia College and was a consultant to the US State Department. She has a master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University and a bachelor’s in International Relations from Principia College.

Janessa’s mission statement in life is to “see the Other as a brother.”