If you Google Godfather of Modern Street Skating, speaker Rodney Mullen pops up because he invented most of the tricks performed in the modern era of skateboarding and is the most dominant world champion in the history of the sport. A successful entrepreneur, Rodney co-founded World Industries, which emerged as the largest and most lucrative skate company throughout the 90’s, climaxing in its sale in 1998-then a subsequent sale, two years later. He has started multiple companies under the World umbrella, holds two patents, and is widely credited for creating modern board and wheel designs. In recognition for his creative contributions, Rodney was chosen for a Professional Fellowship at the Smithsonian where one of his signature model skateboards is on display.

Rodney studied chemical engineering at the University of Florida where he ushered into the honorary math society Pi Mu Epsilon as an exception, given it is reserved for mathematical sciences. After selling his business, he found tech/hacker culture to be a blend of skate culture that used his analytic skills; by 2012, he found himself handpicked to elite gathering of mind events in Silicon Valley via Tim O’Reilly’s FoO Camps, hosted over the years at Google X, Facebook, Lyft, and O’Reilly. Soon, other more academic institutions took notice: The National Academy of Sciences featured him in their 2015 study, Educating to Innovate. By 2019, Rodney was named a Director’s Fellow at MIT’s Media Lab, where he is involved in the lab’s work, bringing new perspectives, ideas, and knowledge to projects and initiatives.

Speaker Rodney Mullen has been in the public eye since his teenage years, accumulating not only a multi-generational fanbase, but also a nonchalance with the spotlight. Since 1982, he’s had countless magazine cover-shots and features, so by the time he was on “That’s Incredible” in the late 80’s, he already had an ease with being on stage. The first real speech he ever did appeared on TED, generating over 1.9 Million views. His skate videos and interviews on YouTube number in the tens of millions of views-just his “Best Of” has over 24 million.  Recently, Rodney has been a guest on “Larry King Now” (2019), the viral web series “Impact Theory” (2018),  and a viral YouTube channel called “Physics Girl” (2018), where he discussed physics and creativity-an episode that to date has 2.2 Million views.  In print, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Vogue all featured articles on Rodney and his release of his last video, Liminal; a video which trended #1 on Facebook for days (July 2016). Such prestigious publications as The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Forbes have all written articles on other facets of Rodney’s life.