About

Culturati: Summit 2C18 was a gathering of visionary CEOs, founders, board directors, and culture-focused investors willing to go beyond soundbites to explore the true impact of culture on performance, purpose, and scale. Held in Austin, the Summit featured a mix of open and Chatham House sessions designed to spark unfiltered dialogue and real-time insight across industries.

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Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, opened the Summit with a keynote on “Powerful Cultures,” challenging conventional management models with lessons from scaling a radically honest workplace. Dean Carter, then VP of HR and Shared Services at Patagonia, and David Simas, CEO of the Obama Foundation, explored how mission-driven organizations create lasting “citizen cultures,” in a conversation moderated by Wailin Wong of The Rework Podcast.

In a timely session on governance, Dan Hesse (former CEO, Sprint) and Leslie Heisz (Board Director, Public Storage) made the case for why boards must take culture seriously, moderated by Erin Essenmacher of NACD. Later sessions included R.C. Buford, General Manager of the San Antonio Spurs, who led a Chatham House keynote on the architecture of high-performance cultures, moderated by Leonard Moore of The University of Texas at Austin. Spencer and Julie Rice, co-founders of SoulCycle, delivered a dynamic keynote on emotional resonance, community, and brand culture, moderated by Doug Ulman of Pelotonia. Another Chatham House keynote, “Everyone Cultures,” featured leaders from Google, PayPal, and Accenture, with moderator Chris Shipley. These conversations, alongside breakouts on remote work, inclusive hiring, post-layoff leadership, and culture mergers, made one thing clear: this was not a stage for polished narratives, but a forum for leaders who build in the gray where trust is earned, performance is personal, and culture is the throughline.