Former Senior White House Policy Advisor for Nutrition and Executive Director, Let’s Move!; Founder, Trove; Partner, Acre Venture Partners; Author
Sam Kass offers fresh and informative insights as he explores the latest developments in health, wellness, and the future of consumption. A tech entrepreneur, food expert and former senior policy advisor for the White House, Kass brings a wealth of expertise and experiences to redefine and inspire the way consumers and corporations approach these evolving markets.
White House insider Sam Kass has been a driving force at the forefront of health policy in the United States and has helped to launch this topic into a global discussion. Offering unique and informative insights, Kass explores the latest developments in health care, imparts personal and inspiring narratives, and tackles the serious issues that impact your industry today.
A driving force at the forefront of health, nutrition and food consumption in the United States, Sam Kass brings experiences in both the public and private sectors to inform his audiences. Asked by President Obama in 2009 if he would move to Washington to serve as the First Family’s chef, a role Kass accepted and held for six years, Kass additionally took on several other roles during his White House tenure, including senior White House policy advisor for nutrition and executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign. In this capacity, Kass created one of the most successful branded initiatives to come out of the Obama Administration, and in 2011, Fast Company magazine named Kass to their list of 100 Most Creative People.
An enduring facilitator for global change, Kass founded the strategy firm Trove in 2015 with a vision to connect businesses, organizations and governments who are serious about making an impact on the world to the people and tools to help them achieve it. Blending charisma, candor and wit, he engages audience members as he explores the latest technologies and developments in food, health, waste and more as most related to the issues that bear most on your industry. Speaking earnestly, Kass shares personal narratives and chronicles the challenges he has faced in his efforts to lead change and negotiation. An innovative take on the modern keynote, Kass informs audiences with specific tools and takeaways as he explains what a rapidly changing future means for consumers and corporations alike.
Currently, Kass serves as partner at the venture capital fund Acre Venture Partners and is a fellow at MIT Media Lab. He is the author of Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World, a cookbook that outlines his philosophy on how to buy, prepare, and eat delicious food.
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Sam Kass’ Speech Topics
The Last Supper
“The Last Supper” is a dinner concept showcasing ingredients that experts predict will not be widely available for our children and grandchildren (and potentially some in our lifetime). These ingredients include coffee, wine, chocolate, clams, oysters, mussels, scallops, crab, shrimp, lobster, many nuts etc.
Working with a local chef or catering company, Sam Kass will design a menu with these ingredients to make the menu your own and relevant to the local place. He also highlights dramatic regional disruptions that are coming to areas that have produced a certain crop for generations where they will no longer be able to support that crop. (Georgia peaches for example)
Sam will speak at the opening of the dinner, explaining what is happening in the intersection of food/ag/climate and highlighting what’s at stake. He will also talk about the solutions that are emerging which he firmly believes are absolutely critical and maybe our best hope of staving off the worst impacts of climate. He will end on a hopeful note, helping to bring an emotional connection to these issues which has been lacking.
Creating a Culture of Health and Wellness
Making healthy choices is far easier said than done. As the director of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, Sam Kass garnered acclaim for his leadership at the forefront of the First Lady’s national, multifaceted initiative to encourage healthy eating and exercise for all Americans—and people are listening.
An innovative take on the modern “keynote”, Kass delights and informs audiences, taking them behind the scenes of what it was like to serve as a public face for “Let’s Move!”, and more. From replacing the “food pyramid” to reshaping food labels, Kass is able to address the significance of specific policies he not only helped to shape, but acted persistently on to enact. He is credited for advancing policies through Congress at unprecedented speed. Audiences are captivated by his candor, entertaining narratives, and unique analysis of today’s health climate and food systems. Additionally, Kass can explore the impact that sustainability, wellness and health care policies have in workplace environments; tips and tricks to setting up both home and work environments for success in endeavors towards healthy living; and incentives that organizations can establish for their employees.
The Future of Corporate Health Care
Sam Kass understands that health care remains one of the leading costs corporations face today. Infusing wit and candor to captivate audiences with personal stories from inside the White House, Kass offers unique and informative perspectives on the tools and initiatives organizations can implement today to combat these losses. As the former executive director of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and former senior White House policy advisor for nutrition policy, Kass worked with both Congress and the private sector to shape strategic national policies and launch a global discussion. He firmly believes for corporations to successfully address the related costs of health care, executives must first instill a higher value on both employee and customer health. He addresses wellness issues that directly impact your bottom line and explores opportunities that exist for your organization by way of the latest up-and-coming health care developments. Having been a driving force at the forefront of health policy in the United States and an enduring catalyst for global change, Kass earnestly speaks to the issues that bear most on your audience in this thought-provoking and informative presentation.
Eat A Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World
People strive to eat well and be environmentally conscious, but many of us wonder how one family can actually make a difference. In this keynote, Sam Kass breaks down the impact you can have by choosing the right foods for your health and for the environment. He shares the philosophy and stories of helping the Obamas create the right habits in their home (in Chicago and the big white one), with tips for shopping and setting up your kitchen to support healthy, environmentally friendly eating. Sometimes going organic, local, and so forth is not realistic, and that’s OK – it’s all about choosing and doing a little better, and how those choices add up to big change.
What other organizations say about Sam Kass
Sam Kass was very thoughtful, authentic, well-spoken, well-researched and made a good connection of his topic to the HR domain.
Human Resources
What other organizations say about Sam Kass
Sam was great! Our audience loved him and all were really thrilled to get signed copies of his book. He definitely brought in additional attendees to the conference, his talk was very relevant to our program and his delivery was very personable and accessible.