About Samantha

**Keynote Speaker. Executive Coach. Corporate Leader. Fighter Pilot.**
Samantha “Combo” Weeks, PhD is a results-driven leader excelling in both the military and public company arenas. She retired after 23 years of active duty service in the United States Air Force where she was an accomplished fighter pilot and senior leader. Perhaps most notably, she was the first-ever female solo demonstration pilot on the US Air Force Thunderbirds. She amassed over 2,000 fighter hours in the F-15C and F-16, and culminated her military career as a Wing Commander where she oversaw the largest and most diverse pilot training base and was responsible for $150 million annual budget and $2.3 billion in capital assets. After the military, Samantha excelled as a corporate executive helping to transform and cultivate Shift4, a public financial technology company, as its first-ever Chief Transformation Officer. During her time at Shift4, revenue growth almost doubled to $2.57B with a 99.2% increase in just three years, saw employee growth almost double, and the company’s footprint expand to a global offering.
Samantha earned her PhD from Air University where her research concentrated on leader and leadership development. She is also International Coaching Federation (ICF) certified, earned her Executive Coaching Certificate from the University of Texas at Dallas, and was selected for the prestigious International Womens’ Forum (IWF) Fellowship program in 2019.

Presentation Topics & Descriptions

The Culture Equation

Leaders + Leadership + the People you Lead.

Culture plays a significant role in the effectiveness and success of any organization, but leaders often focus on strategy and execution without understanding the power of culture. Samantha saw, first hand, the power of culture when she joined the elite aerial demonstration squadron, the Air Force Thunderbirds, as it's first-ever female solo demonstration pilot.

The equation of a leader, their leadership style, and the people made a significant impact on Samantha's leadership philosophy. Over the last two decades, she's taken her time on the Thunderbirds and used the culture equation to succeed in the cockpit and the corporate board room.

Samantha illustrates the power of leaders to harness and cultivate their company's culture for today and tomorrow. She presents her audiences with action-driven ways to develop and evolve the culture they need to propel their people, performance, and profit to the max.

Creating Success: Connecting Trust and Teamwork

While flying 18 inches away from other high-performance aircraft, Samantha Weeks learned quickly how trust and teamwork can be the difference between life and death. Discover lessons from a Thunderbird and veteran Air Force fighter pilot in this dynamic keynote. Trust is critical to the success of teams, and it doesn’t just happen – it requires each of us to do our part. From a foundation of trust, authentic action, bold commitment, and empathetic leadership set high-performance teams on a trajectory to unparalleled heights.

Dr. Weeks meets your audience on ground-level, cultivating a map to navigate workplace environments to grow trust and teamwork, even when it seems impossible.