Prior to joining GII, Preston held leadership positions in the public and private sectors. Preston served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, leading both federal agencies during times of national crisis.
He orchestrated successful turnarounds as the CEO of two private corporations, Oakleaf Global Holdings and Livingston International. He was also the CFO of two Fortune 500 companies — Waste Management and ServiceMaster — during times of significant change and restructuring for each company.
Preston is a member of Fast Company’s Impact Council and has been featured in the Associated Press, Forbes, The New York Times, and in The Wall Street Journal. He has also appeared on ABC’s “Pandemic,” Bloomberg TV, Cheddar, CNBC, C-SPAN, FOX Business‘ “Varney & Co.,” and Yahoo! Finance Live in addition to appearing on numerous radio shows, podcasts and YouTube series, including AEI‘s Hardly Working, Working Nation, Future of Work, Indeed‘s Here to Help, Partnering Leadership, and Accenture’s Change Conversations. Preston is a sought-after speaker on workforce development and skills for the future and has served as a keynote speaker for the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Conference: Business Solves, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Forward Conference, the Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week, and the Tugboat Institute Summit.
Preston graduated with Highest Distinction from Northwestern University and holds an MBA from The University of Chicago. Preston currently serves on the Partnership for Public Service and Wheaton College Board of Trustees.
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Dr. Rod Berger is a keynote speaker, moderator, producer, author, and expert in strategic storytelling. Berger’s book, The Narrative Edge: Authentic Storytelling That Meets The Moment (Wiley), hits bookstores in late 2025. He draws on more than 4,000 interviews conducted worldwide for Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fair Observer, including a cover story about former Virgin Entertainment co-founder Jason Felts, for Los Angeles Magazine, as well as various podcasts. He has captured the narratives of investors, CEOs, renowned entrepreneurs, bestselling authors, scholars, and cultural icons such as NBA legends Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, as well as United Nations officials and Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar, while also exploring the behind-the-scenes world of Formula 1.
Berger has met with the Crown Princess of Sweden, Pope Francis, United Nations officials, and NGO leaders, covering stories of water insecurity with WaterAid, the intergenerational refugee crisis faced by displaced Sudanese in Uganda, and the impacts of child marriage in Western Africa with the Le Korsa Foundation.
Berger served as a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management for nearly two decades, focusing on the power of storytelling in business.
He has partnered with The Jim Henson Company to create a television show, The Ultimate GOAT, that combines his passion for distant lands and storytelling with culture, sports, and puppetry for family programming.
Berger conducts moderated keynote events that blend storytelling with live, on-stage narratives featuring cultural icons such as Opal Lee, the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and recognized as the “Grandmother” of Juneteenth. In 2023, Berger received the inaugural Pangea International Literacy Prize and delivered his TEDx Talk, “Story is Our Currency.” He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and two children.
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