Gene Kim is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, researcher, and multiple award-winning CTO. He has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999 and was the founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He is the author of six books, The Unicorn Project (2019), and co-author of the Shingo Publication Award-winning Accelerate (2018), The DevOps Handbook (2016), and The Phoenix Project (2013). Since 2014, he has been the founder and organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations. He lives in Portland, OR, with his wife and family.

Steven J. Spear (DBA MS MS) is principal for HVE LLC, the award-winning author of The High-Velocity Edge and patent holder for the See to Solve Real Time Alert System. A Senior Lecturer at MIT's Sloan School and a Senior Fellow at the Institute, Spear's work focuses on accelerating learning dynamics within organizations so that they know better and faster what to do and how to do it. This has been informed and tested in practice in multiple "verticals" including heavy industry, high-tech design, bio-pharm R&D, healthcare delivery and other social services, Army rapid equipping, and Navy readiness.

High velocity learning concepts became the basis of the Alcoa Business System-which led to 100s of millions in recurring savings, the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiatives "Perfecting Patient Care System"-credited with sharp reductions in complications like MRSA and CLABs, Pratt & Whitney's "Engineering Standard Work"-which when piloted led to winning the engine contract for the Joint Strike Fighter, the operating system for Detroit Edison, and the Navy's high velocity learning line of effort-an initiative led by the Chief of Naval Operations. A pilot with a pharma company cut the time for the 'hit to lead' phase in early stage drug discovery from twelve months to six.