Born and raised in New Zealand, Zion Armstrong has spent more than 20 years developing his career at adidas. In 2018, he was named president of adidas North America at the age of 43, having ascended the ranks from footwear manager, where he began with the company in 1998.

Along the way, Armstrong has led products and divisions on four continents — Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America — finding his way to adidas’ world headquarters in Portland, Oregon in 2010 as a managing director. He has also served as a brand director and general manager for adidas before being named to his current leadership position.

A competitive 400-meter hurdler in his youth, Armstrong broke his shoulder preparing to compete for a spot in the Olympics, an injury he credits to him changing courses and joining adidas 21 years ago.

Founded in 2013 by local entrepreneurs, Michael Spangenberg and Stephen and Nicholas Polando, State Forty Eight was born out of a shared passion and appreciation for the great state of Arizona. More than just apparel line, State Forty Eight represents a lifestyle, a sense of community and is an expression of pride.

From sports fans and outdoor explorers to the more fashion-forward, the homegrown brand offers gear for all that’s both stylish and comfortable. Above all else though, State Forty Eight is about redefining the status-quo and inspiring others to rise up and stand for something they believe in.

A native Arizonan, Michael Spangenberg studied hotel, motel, and restaurant management at Scottsdale Community College.

Robert J. Barro is Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.S. in physics from Caltech.

Barro is co-editor of Harvard’s Quarterly Journal of Economics and has been President of the Western Economic Association and Vice President of the American Economic Association.He was a viewpoint columnist for Business Week from 1998 to 2006 and a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 1998. He has written extensively on macroeconomics and economic growth.

Recent research involves rare macroeconomic disasters, corporate tax reform, religion & economy, empirical determinants of economic growth, and economic effects of public debt and budget deficits. Recent books include Religion and Economy (forthcoming with Rachel McCleary), Economic Growth (2nd edition, with Xavier Sala-i-Martin), Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium, Determinants of Economic Growth, and Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society.

Bart Hobijn joined the Economics Department at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in the summer of 2015. Mr. Hobijn is an applied macroeconomist, whose special interests are technological progress and economic growth, price measurement, and labor market dynamics. Prior to joining ASU, Mr. Hobijn worked in the Economic Research departments of the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco and New York. He has also taught classes at U.C. Berkeley, City University of New York, INSEAD, New York University, and VU University Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

Mr. Hobijn serves as a member of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ technical advisory committee. He completed his Ph.D. in economics at New York University and his MS in econometrics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, in The Netherlands.

His research has been published in several of the leading academic journals in economics, including the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Journal of Monetary Economics. He has more than 60 publications and more than 6000 citations on Google Scholar.

Dr. Lee McPheters is Research Professor of Economics in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and Director of the school’s JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center. The Center maintains the Western Blue Chip Economic Forecast and Greater Phoenix Economic Forecast websites. Dr. McPheters also oversees the Job Growth USA website that tracks employment for all industries in the U.S. states and metropolitan areas. The website is frequently used by economists, financial analysts, economic development specialists, and, during election season, fact-checking organizations to evaluate claims by candidates regarding job creation statistics and policies. His writings on the Western region have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Economist, Business Week, The New York Times, and Newsweek as well as major metropolitan area newspapers throughout the nation. He has appeared nationally on Good Morning America, Fox News, Marketplace on NPR, and CNN commenting on the economic outlook. As Director of the Economic Outlook Center, since 1987 Dr. McPheters has delivered a cumulative total of more than 500 speeches and presentations to various public and private audiences at business and academic conferences in Arizona and across the nation.

Dr. McPheters has published numerous articles in books and professional journals on various topics, including immigration, executive compensation, monetary policy, international business cycles, and issues in law and economics. At the federal level, his work has been supported by the United States departments of Justice, Transportation, Agriculture, and the Treasury. In Arizona, he has completed research projects for the Arizona Department of Transportation, Sky Harbor International Airport, Boeing, and many other public and corporate sponsors.

Dr. McPheters completed his undergraduate studies at San Francisco State University and received his Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He has been at ASU since 1976, teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in monetary and regional economics. In addition, has held various administrative positions at ASU including Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the W. P. Carey School of Business from 1991 – 2008.

J.K. Symancyk joined PetSmart as CEO in June 2018 and became a member of the company’s board of directors. A consumer retail veteran with more than 25 years of industry experience managing complex retail operations, including his previous role as CEO of Academy Sports + Outdoors, Symancyk has demonstrated throughout his career an ability to lead companies, drive profitable growth, and improve the organizational performance of internal teams at large, multi-channel consumer businesses.

Previously, Symancyk served as president of Meijer, where he was responsible for leading all aspects of the retailer. He also held management positions at Walmart, including Sam’s Club and Walmart.

Symancyk graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Alex Taylor is president and chief executive officer of Cox Enterprises, a leading communications, media and automotive services company with $21 billion in annual revenues and more than 55,000 employees worldwide. He is responsible for the company and its three major subsidiaries: Cox Communications, Cox Automotive and Cox Media Group, as well as the Cox Family Office and corporate functions including financial operations, human resources and administration. Taylor serves on Cox Enterprises’ board of directors and is the great-grandson of James M. Cox, who founded the company in 1898.

During his 19-year career at Cox, Taylor has held numerous leadership positions, including chief operating officer of Cox Enterprises, vice president of field operations of Cox Communications, and executive vice president of Cox Media Group, overseeing its largest television, radio, newspaper and digital properties and creating the company’s first cross-platform newsroom.

Taylor began his career as a reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in Colorado. An avid outdoorsman and conservationist, he is the author of The Longest Cast: The Fly-Fishing Journey of a Lifetime, donating its royalties to the International Game Fishing Association for the preservation of endangered fishing sanctuaries. He received his bachelor's degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University.

Christian Koch currently serves as president and CEO of the Carlisle Companies Inc., a diversified, global portfolio of niche brands and businesses that manufactures highly engineered products and solutions for our customers. Carlisle’s markets include: commercial roofing, specialty polyurethane, architectural metal, aerospace, medical, defense, transportation, industrial, protective coating, auto refinishing, agriculture, mining, and construction. Carlisle’s worldwide team of employees generated $4.5 billion in revenues in 2018.

Koch was named president and CEO in January 2016; he joined Carlisle in 2008 as president of its Asia Pacific operations. He has also held leadership positions at Graco Inc. in Shanghai and Minneapolis, and at TEC Inc. in Illinois.

A board member of The Headstrong Project, Toro Co., and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, among others, Koch received bachelor’s degrees in economics and history from Macalester College, where he was elected a trustee in 2015. He also earned an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.