Chris Resto is the lead author of RECRUIT OR DIE: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent (Penguin Portfolio, 2007) and founder and managing partner of Blueprint Talent Group, a boutique consulting firm that helps growing organizations with recruiting strategy and talent management. Blueprint’s global client base includes firms in technology, venture capital, and finance / trading industries, as well as universities. Chris’s book Recruit or Die grew from experience building the largest internship and professional development program at MIT (UPOP) and conducting a three-year research study with students, colleges, and companies in the US and abroad. As founding director of MIT UPOP, Chris led a team that engaged thousands of employers seeking top engineering talent, and he personally visited over 300 companies. In 2007, Chris joined the electronic trading firm GETCO (now part of KCG), where he served as co-head of global staffing after building their firm-wide recruiting program for quants and new graduate traders. He later served as Coach to the CTO and Director of Strategic Planning for the firm. After earning a bachelor's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT, Chris started his career with the European-based strategy consulting firm Gemini Consulting, where he managed a team of consultants performing strategic market research for both entrepreneurial and well-established corporate clients.

Krisztina “Z” Holly is an MIT-trained engineer and tech entrepreneur best known for curating and hosting the first ever TEDx and founding two innovation centers at MIT and USC that helped spin-out dozens of startups based on university research. She currently serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for LA Mayor Garcetti, focusing on encouraging startup ecosystems around manufacturing. Early on, she played key roles at tech startups such as Stylus innovation (acquired by Artisoft) and Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by Ask Jeeves). Named Champion of Free Enterprise by Forbes in 2010, she has been an advisor to the Obama administration and the World Economic Forum.