Dr. Bill Winston, a globally renowned pastor, entrepreneur, and business leader, presents the 2025 Business and Leadership Conference (#BLC2025) from Friday, March 21, through Saturday, March 22. The conference theme is Scale Up and reflects the conference's mission to equip entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketplace leaders with innovative strategies and tools to scale their businesses to the next level of creativity, profitability, and impact. 

The high-intensity two-day experience is designed to equip entrepreneurs and business professionals to take the lead in business, government, education, media, arts and entertainment, and other areas of influence. Three thousand (3,000) business and faith leaders from around the world are expected to attend in person with many times that number of attendees expected to join online. The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.  

BLC is hosted each year by the nationally accredited Joseph Business School (JBS), also founded by Dr. Winston. The school, which has produced 53 millionaires, teaches its students how to start businesses and excel in the marketplace using the practical and spiritual principles found in the Bible. JBS is committed to eradicating poverty and closing the wealth gap, particularly in underserved urban communities, through entrepreneurship and business ownership.

This year’s power-packed conference will host some of the business world’s most compelling global talent across multiple industries, including:

· Keynote Speakers: Dr. Bill Winston, Global Faith Leader & CEO; Dr. Trisha Bailey, Billionaire Businesswoman, Philanthropist & Real Estate Mogul; Charles Payne, Fox Business Network Host and CEO & Principal Analyst, Wall Street Strategies, Inc.; Craig Williams, President, Geographies & Marketplace, NIKE, Inc.; Dia Nichols, President, Illinois Division, Advocate Health

· Venture Capital Showcase: Serial Entrepreneurs – Orville Bailey, Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder, EqualLevel; Stuart A. Taylor II, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Taylor Group; and Joyce Johnson, Chairman of Pacific Gate Capital Management, LLC (PGC)

· Special Guest Musical Artist: Dr. Adlan Cruz, Pianist, Performer, Director & Musical Producer

·  Emcee: Adrienne Bankert, Award-winning Journalist & Author, and weekend anchor, NewsNation

Breakout Session Tracks and Speakers include:

·  Finance & Investment: Michelle Renee, Ed Walters, and Joseph Wealth Management team

· Technology & Innovation: Trisha Crudup, Kimberly Johnson, Dr. Olivier Kamanzi, Charles Harrell II, Angela D. Valentine, Diane Gist, and Pierre Dunagan

· Health & Wellness: Advocate Healthcare, Dr. Lawrence Salone, Dr. Ola Kolawole, Sharon Stewart, Melody Winston

· Inventors Showcase: Louis Foreman

· LatinTalks Chicago en Español: Entrepreneur Peter O. Estevez, founder, and Alfonso Gutierrez, Telemundo, official emcee

· Youth Entrepreneurship: Jackie Horbrook and Dwayne Smith