OCON 2025 Speakers

OCON

July 1-5, 2025    |    Boston

The Westin Copley Place

Speakers

Amesh Adalja

Dr. Adalja, a board-certified physician in infectious disease, critical care medicine, emergency medicine, and internal medicine, specializes in the intersection of national security with catastrophic health events. He publishes and lectures on bioterrorism, pandemic preparedness, and emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Adalja is a frequent guest on national radio and television programs. During the COVID pandemic, he treated patients and engaged in high-level policy discussions, advising various organizations and communicating extensively with the public.

Bendrix Bailey

Mr. Bailey is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with decades of experience in technology and commercial real estate. He founded Measurement Computing Corp. and led the company to a $34M acquisition, later building a successful real estate business focused on airport properties. He is entering law school in 2026 with the goal of practicing law by December of 2029, which he intends to do not for financial profit, but to fight censorship and government tyranny inflicted upon those who lack the resources to defend themselves.

Ben Bayer

Dr. Bayer is a fellow and director of content at the Ayn Rand Institute. He teaches at ARU and gives talks and interviews for ARI. He writes and edits for ARI’s online publication, New Ideal. Dr. Bayer’s writing focuses primarily on the application of philosophy to contemporary cultural and political controversies.

Yaron Brook

Dr. Brook is chairman of the board of the Ayn Rand Institute. He is co-author, with Don Watkins, of In Pursuit of Wealth (2017), Equal Is Unfair (2016), and of the national bestseller Free Market Revolution (2012). He is the host of The Yaron Brook Show on YouTube. He is a frequent guest on national radio and television programs.

John Cerasuolo

Mr. Cerasuolo is CEO of Leap Partners, a private equity-backed rollup of HVAC and plumbing businesses across the Southeast. He launched Leap Partners in 2022 after selling ADS Security, the 17th largest electronic security company in the US. Mr. Cerasuolo is chairman of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a state-based free-market think tank.

Loren Corle

Mr. Corle, a recently retired entrepreneur, started as a piping contractor in 1982 and grew his business into an international concern. His company, RELCO LLC, provides customized, design-build processing systems and equipment for dairy and food manufacturing plants in over 30 countries and on all six inhabited continents. He sold the company in 2020. Today, he maintains a consulting business and is involved in local business organizations, including a business-funded and -directed high school accredited course for young entrepreneurs where he is vice chair of the board.

Thomas Eiden

Thomas Eiden is a nuclear engineer-turned-entrepreneur who is tackling the global radioisotope shortage. His career began as a graduate researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying advanced nuclear fuels and operating both the university’s reactor and its particle accelerator. After graduating, Eiden became a reactor engineer at the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory. He founded Atomic Alchemy Inc. in 2018 and received his first investment from the storied startup accelerator Y Combinator. In February, Atomic Alchemy was acquired by Oklo Inc.

Onkar Ghate

Dr. Ghate is senior fellow, chief philosophy officer, and a board member of the Ayn Rand Institute. He specializes in Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, and is ARI’s senior instructor and editor. He publishes and lectures on Rand’s philosophy and fiction, including application of Objectivism to cultural issues, and has been a guest on national radio and television programs.

Audra Hilse

Miss Hilse is the archivist at the Ayn Rand Archives, where she manages the Archives’ collections and staff. She holds a BA in History, an MLIS, a Digital Archives Specialist certificate from the Society of American Archivists and is a graduate of the Objectivist Academic Center. Prior to joining ARI, she worked at corporate archives and county historical societies.

Elan Journo

Mr. Journo is a senior fellow and vice president at ARI, overseeing content, advanced intellectual training, and the Ayn Rand Archives. His books include What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong after 9/11, and Illuminating Ayn Rand.

Brandon Lisi

Mr. Lisi is a historian who manages the physical holdings of the Ayn Rand Archives and assists with digital archival projects. He also writes articles for ARI’s online journal, New Ideal, and for Ayn Rand Today, based on his archival research. Mr. Lisi holds a master’s degree in history and is a graduate of ARU.

Shoshana Milgram

Dr. Milgram, associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, specializes in narrative fiction and film. Her scholarship includes introductions to Victor Hugo’s novels, a study of Ayn Rand’s life up to 1957, and articles on Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Nabokov, and others. She relishes the roles of literary detective and cheerleader.

Jason Rheins

Dr. Rheins is a scholar of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. He has taught or held professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, UNC Chapel Hill, St. John’s University, and Loyola University Chicago. He has published articles and book chapters on the history of philosophy, the philosophy of science, and metaphysics. He is currently writing a monograph on Plato’s theology.

Greg Salmieri

Dr. Salmieri teaches philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Brigham Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism and directs the Salem Center’s Objectivity Program. Dr. Salmieri is the co-editor of A Companion to Ayn Rand (2016), Foundations of a Free Society (2019), and Two Philosophers: Aristotle and Ayn Rand (forthcoming).

Peter Schwartz

Mr. Schwartz is the author of The Tyranny of Need: Examining the Code of Self-Sacrifice—and the Alternative of Rational, Non-Predatory Self-Interest  (Expanded Second Edition). He is a former chairman of the board at ARI, and is currently a distinguished fellow there.

Tara Smith

Dr. Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she specializes in moral and legal philosophy. Dr. Smith has published numerous books and articles, including, most recently, Egoism Without Permission: The Moral Psychology of Ayn Rand’s Ethics and The First Amendment: Essays on the Imperative of Intellectual Freedom.

Nikos Sotirakopoulos

Dr. Sotirakopoulos is a visiting fellow at ARI. His main research interest is the history of political ideas, and he teaches two courses at ARU on Marxism and the modern Left. He is the author of Identity Politics and Tribalism: The New Culture Wars.

Derek Sutherland

Derek Sutherland is an applied physicist and nuclear engineer who has focused his professional career on R&D of fusion energy technologies for both terrestrial power generation and advanced space propulsion. Beyond his technical work, Dr. Sutherland is involved in U.S. nuclear energy policy development and serves as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy on their fusion energy program.

Bradley Thompson

C. Bradley Thompson is professor of political philosophy at Clemson University and is the executive director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He is the founder and director of the Lyceum Scholars Program at Clemson. Dr. Thompson is currently finishing his next book, titled America’s Constitutional Mind: On the Origin and History of the Idea of a Written Constitution as Fundamental Law. You can read Dr. Thompson’s public writings at his Substack, “The Redneck Intellectual,” where he writes on current intellectual and cultural trends, politics, and K-12 education.

Tal Tsfany

Mr. Tsfany is president and CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute. Previously, he was an entrepreneur and executive in the software world in Israel and the United States. Mr. Tsfany runs the Happiness Team and the Hero Mastermind programs guiding participants to rationally and passionately pursue their values. He has also published a young adult book, titled Sophie, and is working on a new book about happiness.

Don Watkins

Mr. Watkins is vice president of fundraising and marketing at the Ayn Rand Institute. He is the best-selling author of books such as Equal Is Unfair (co-authored with Yaron Brook) and, most recently, Effective Egoism.

Josh Windham

Mr. Windham is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice where he litigates nationwide in defense of property rights and economic liberty. He is the co-director of the Institute for Justice’s Fourth Amendment Project, and is currently litigating cases involving warrantless searches of private land, baseless traffic stops, and dragnet camera surveillance.

Harry Binswanger

Dr. Binswanger, Ph.D. in philosophy, was an associate of Ayn Rand’s and is editor of The Ayn Rand Lexicon and co-editor of the revised edition of Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. He is the author of How We Know and The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts and was the founding editor/publisher of The Objectivist Forum. In addition to owning and moderating the Harry Binswanger Letter, he is an instructor at Ayn Rand Institute.

Jeff Britting

Mr. Britting is a leading authority on Ayn Rand’s life and cultural impact. A composer, filmmaker, and playwright, he is the author of the 2004 short biography Ayn Rand, the first biographical work based on unrestricted access to the Ayn Rand Papers (held at the Ayn Rand Archives).

Aaron Fried

Mr. Fried is the senior director of Growth and Technology at the Ayn Rand Institute. With a background in marketing, software, and entrepreneurship, Mr. Fried leads teams at ARI that focus on exponentially increasing the number of people reading Rand’s work and learning about Objectivism.

After studying at the Objectivist Academic Center in 2020, Mr. Fried joined ARI in 2021 to grow the program and launch Ayn Rand Institute.

Dihann Geier

Ms. Geier is a former ballroom dance studio owner. She has taught many forms of dance to different age groups, from kids to seniors, and has performed nationally and internationally in ballroom, swing, and line dancing competitions. She’s been a choreographer and team captain for competitive youth and adult line dance teams. Ms. Geier taught the popular Miami Dance and Salsa class at OCON 2023.

Gena Gorlin

Dr. Gorlin is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, a practicing licensed psychologist, and a coach for entrepreneurs and other ambitious innovators. She has published numerous academic and popular articles on her research examining the moral psychology of self-creation, and she writes a popular Substack newsletter titled Building the Builders. 

Nicolas Krusek

Mr. Krusek is a musician, conductor, speaker, and music educator. After completing a degree in composition at the University of British Columbia, he studied orchestral and choral conducting at the Janacek Academy of Performing Arts in Brno (Czech Republic). He later returned to UBC to complete a master’s degree in historical musicology.

James Lennox

Dr. Lennox is professor emeritus of history and philosophy of science, University of Pittsburgh. He has published widely on the history and philosophy of biology with a special focus on Aristotle, Charles Darwin, and evolutionary biology. He is a founding member of the Ayn Rand Society and co-editor of the Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies series.

Tristan de Liège

Dr. de Liège is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He received his PhD from UC Riverside in 2021. His research centers on productive work and its relationship to well-being, Aristotle’s ethics, and virtue ethics.

Robert Mayhew

Dr. Mayhew, a member of ARI’s board of directors, teaches philosophy at Seton Hall University. He is the author or editor of nine books in his area of specialization, ancient philosophy (for instance, his recent Aristotle’s Lost Homeric Problems), and author or editor of ten books related to Ayn Rand and Objectivism.

Mike Mazza

Dr. Mazza is an associate fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He specializes in the philosophy of science with a particular interest in causality.

Scott McDonald

Mr. McDonald is a retired US Marine Corps China specialist and PhD candidate at The Fletcher School of Tufts University. He has taught at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. He is co-editor of and a chapter author in The Future of the United States–Australia Alliance (2021).

Jean Moroney

Ms. Moroney, president of Thinking Directions, teaches ambitious people the psycho-epistemological skills they need to achieve challenging, selfish goals. This material is available to individuals in her Thinking Lab, an online membership program.

Evan Picoult

Dr. Picoult has had a long, successful overlapping career at Columbia University and Citigroup. He has been affiliated with four departments at Columbia University: Physics (PhD), Psychology (assistant professor), Business (MBA, adjunct professor), and Engineering and Applied Science (adjunct professor). Dr. Picoult retired as managing director of Citigroup (1980–2018), where his work focused on developing methods for measuring financial risks.

Thomas Shoebotham

Mr. Shoebotham is principal conductor of New Ballet in San Jose, California. Previous conducting engagements have included Berkeley Opera, Opera San José, Palo Alto Philharmonic and many others. He has lectured on music, taught in school music programs, and performed numerous recitals as a cellist and pianist over the last thirty years.

Agustina Vergara Cid

Ms. Vergara Cid, LLB, LLM, is an alumna of the Objectivist Academic Center and a current student at Ayn Rand Institute, where she is taking advanced courses. She is a teaching assistant in ARU writing courses and a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. She writes a column for the Orange County Register.

Sam Weaver

Mr. Weaver is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and a recipient of the Conceptual Education Fellowship. He works as a teaching assistant for Ayn Rand Institute and leads sessions in ARI’s reading group program. Mr. Weaver holds a BA in English from Davidson College and is a graduate of the Objectivist Academic Center.

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