Paul Sheard is a noted Australian-American economist and policy-watcher, known for his ability to see the forest and the trees and for his willingness to challenge the conventional wisdom. As a financial markets economist, Sheard cut his teeth in Tokyo covering Japan’s “lost decades” and then, as chief economist of Lehman Brothers in New York, he had a front-row seat at the global financial crisis. Most recently Research Fellow and M-RCBG Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and before that Vice Chairman of S&P Global, Sheard held global chief economist positions at Standard & Poor’s and Nomura Securities, faculty positions at Osaka University and the Australian National University, and visiting scholar positions at Stanford University and the Bank of Japan. He has been a member of several World Economic Forum expert councils, and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, and the Foreign Policy Association.
Plagued for many years by ill health, Mary-Ann Shearer embarked on a personal quest for a common-sense approach to health and well-being. Her intensive studies into nutrition and a natural lifestyle over nearly 30 years led her to develop a simple yet highly effective program that produced unimagined levels of health and vitality. The first to benefit were her family and friends, but after several years of one-on-one consultations, she wrote the book The Natural Way: A Family’s Guide to Vibrant Health (now in its 21st reprint) to help meet the growing demand for her time and knowledge. Since then, Mary-Ann has helped many thousands of people to understand and correct their diet-related problems, thereby building a valuable database of case studies that backs her ongoing research. Mary-Ann has also published two recipe books (The Natural Way: Recipe Book 1 and The Natural Way: Recipe Book 2), each a compilation of more than 300 recipes developed during her popular cooking demonstrations. Her books have been runaway bestsellers, outperforming all other natural health titles in southern Africa. Healthy Kids: The Natural Way was released at the end of 2001 to wide acclaim. Perfect Weight: The Natural Way was released in August 2003 and has had record sales to date. Take Control, written by both Mark and Mary-Ann Shearer, was released in May 2005 and is set to match the extraordinary sales records of its predecessors. Further books are in the pipeline, including a full-color recipe book on healthy entertaining and a definitive reference work entitled The AÐZ of Natural Health. Together with her husband, Mark, Mary-Ann runs seminars on “Finding the Balance,” “Take Control” and “Sex, Drugs, and Cinnamon Rolls,” subjects covered in detail in their book Take Control. She also contributes to numerous magazines and journals on an ongoing basis. Mary-Ann has, over the years, addressed many diverse groups of people throughout the world, from farmers’ wives in the heartland of South Africa, to professional medical people in Houston, Texas. She is in demand as a motivational speaker and regularly addresses groups at business seminars, schools, churches and various associations such as the Cancer Association. She also appears frequently on national television and radio and had her own slot on national talk radio for many years. Mary-Ann visits the U.K. and the U.S. regularly, where she is fast becoming a speaker in demand. Technikon South Africa (now part of Unisa—one of the biggest correspondence universities in the world) has approved her Natural Health and Nutrition Course, and more than 650 students have enrolled worldwide. Mary-Ann’s aim is to show that it is fun and easy to be healthy, and it is this philosophy that inspires her many projects. She and her husband Mark have developed a unique range of whole food products for the retail market. They run their business from Stellenbosch in the Cape. She sends out a regular free e-mail newsletter. Mark and Mary-Ann also film an entire three- to four-hour monthly Digimag, a digital magazine on DVD that can be ordered online or by fax. This service can be accessed on her Web site www.mary-anns.com.
Gregory Shepard has built and sold 12 businesses in BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech and MarTech. He is a Forbes book author and contributor, and has been featured or quoted in publications like Fortune, Entrepreneur, The New York Observer, The DEAL, and Thrive Global. A recipient of four private equity awards for transactions between $250M to $1B, Greg has appeared on TV, radio, and popular podcasts, and been featured as a TEDx and keynote speaker at multiple universities and conferences worldwide.
Josepha Sherman is a fantasy novelist, folklorist and editor, who has written everything from Star Trek novels to biographies of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon.com) to titles such as Mythology for Storytellers (M. E. Sharpe, Inc.) and Trickster Tales (August House). She is the winner of the prestigious Compton Crook Award for best fantasy novel, and has had many titles on the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list. Most current titles include Star Trek: Vulcan’s Soul: Exodus with Susan Shwartz, the reprint of the Unicorn Queen books from Del Rey and the forthcoming Stoned Souls with Mercedes Lackey, for Baen Books. She is also editing The Encyclopedia of Storytelling for M. E. Sharpe. For her other editorial projects, you can check out www.ShermanEditorialServices.com. When she isn’t busy writing, editing or gathering folklore, Sherman loves to travel, knows how to do Horse Whispering and has had a newborn foal fall asleep on her foot.
Diane Shipley is a freelance writer and pop culture obsessive who will never utter the words “it’s only a TV show.” Her idols include Brenda Walsh, Lorelai Gilmore, and Veronica Mars. When not writing or obsessively tweeting (@dianeshipley), she can usually be found eating pizza with a box set by her side (scheduled programming is for amateurs). Her website is www.dianeshipley.com.
John Shirley is the author of numerous novels and books of stories, including the novels Cellars, Wetbones, City Come A-Walkin’, Eclipse, A Splendid Chaos and the recent Bram Stoker AwardÐwinning Black Butterflies from Leisure. He was one of the original cyberpunk writers with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling. He was coscreenwriter of “The Crow” and has written scripts for television series and cable movies. He was lead singer and songwriter for various bands including the punk band SadoNation, the post-punk band Obsession (Celluloid records) and the post-cyberpunk band The Panther Moderns. MP3s of his work are to be found through links at the fan-created Web site www.darkecho.com/JohnShirley. His new novels for Del Rey books are Demons and Crawlers.
Robert L. Shook has been working full-time as an author since 1978. He has more than 50 published books to his credit, including four New York Times bestsellers. He is co-founder and past chairman of the board of Shook Associates Corporation, American Executive Corporation and American Executive Life Insurance Company. He has appeared on more than 600 radio and TV shows and outlets, including CNN and the “Today” show.
Gena Showalter is the prolific author of sexy paranormal romances, fun contemporaries, an alien huntress series and young adult novels. For more information about Gena and her books, you can visit her Web site at www.genashowalter.com, her blog at www.genashowalter.blogspot.com and her MySpace page at www.myspace.com/genashowalter.
