NACS Show 2025
  • McCormick Place Convention Center
  • Conference: October 14-17, 2025
  • Expo: October 15-17, 2025
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Kyle Vowinkel

Principal
Elite Mindsets

Kyle Vowinkel is founder of Elite Mindsets, keynote speaker, and corporate leadership trainer who elevates teams to extraordinary performance levels.

He provides practical and actionable insights on leadership, communication, and negotiation strategies based on over 30 years experience in high stakes situations. Kyle served on two different elite U.S. National assets, each responsible for handling the most volatile situations: first as an operator on the Department of Justice’s counter-terrorism unit, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) capturing the nation's most dangerous criminals; and then as a hostage negotiator on the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) where he matched wits with kidnappers, pirates, and terrorists.

Notably, Kyle persuaded the Boston Marathon bomber to peacefully surrender. 

Leveraging his multifaceted experiences across HRT and CNU, as well as his distinguished roles as an FBI Senior Executive and U.S. Army officer, Kyle weaves captivating and powerful stories intertwined with invaluable lessons and mental frameworks that are transferrable to leaders across diverse industries.

Multiple Fortune 500 companies received Kyle's impactful presentations, along with esteemed academic institutions such as West Point and Cornell University.

His thought leadership extends beyond the stage, with hundreds of thousands of downloads garnered across prominent podcasts and media features, including Fox News True Crime (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjN0b-qOQNA) and FBI Retired Case File Review (https://jerriwilliams.com/296-kyle-vowinkel-boston-marathon-bomber-surrender-negotiation/).

[email protected]

Format: Awards Awards
Awards announcements and presentation.
Format: Case Study Case Study
General topic presenting lessons learned start to finish.
Format: Expert-Expert Interview Expert-Expert Interview
Replaces fireside chat or single presenter format. Must be known industry expert or presentation of robust data.
Format: Ignite Ignite
Slides run automatically keeping speaker pacing. Keeps session moving.
Format: Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope
One topic through the eyes of different functional teams (e.g. supply chain, store ops, frontline, finance, etc.)
Format: Lightning Lightning
Moderated Q&A with small panel with efforts to drive diverse perspective; after 3 minutes on question, buzzer sounds and move to next question; forces people to be brief and clear on answers.
Format: Masterclass Masterclass
Single topic session which is a solo presenter and acts more like an university lecture. Must include multiple media, audience interaction, etc.
Format: Panel Panel
Multiple presenters, experts in a certain field discussing and sharing expertise and experience with one another.
Format: Great Debate: Point Counterpoint Great Debate: Point Counterpoint
Facilitator stimulates point/counterpoint debate on key industry topic.
Format: Roundtables Roundtables
Facilitated discussion. Limited use of slides or video to set-up topic.
Format: Think You Know Me? Think You Know Me?
One group is polled on a topic, and then the other has to guess the outcomes, as a stimulant for discussion.
Format: Workshop Workshop
Traditional small group classroom style format.

Speaking at:

Connect for Success: The Steps to Influence

This workshop is designed for those who want to enhance their communication skills with persuasive and positive methods. Attendees will gain insights on active listening, building rapport, and...

October 07, 2024
1:15 PM - 3:30 PM PDT
Professional Development
Format: Workshop Workshop
 
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