Shermin Kruse is an author, global transactions expert, lawyer, board advisor, speaker, professor, TEDx producer, and idea curator. Her next book, Stoic Empathy, is set for release on February 11, 2025 (Publisher: Hay House, member of the Penguin Random House group). She currently teaches global transactions, tactical empathy, complex negotiation, and leadership at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She is also a TED and TEDx talk producer (having produced more than 80 different TEDx talks and various TEDx music videos), a TEDx speaker, and a negotiation and leadership consultant specializing in weaponizing empathy and stoicism. She is an advisor to corporate directors of multiple corporations on issues ranging from operations to international growth, and an advisor to many more boards and directors through her work at the NACD of Chicago. She is also the author of the textbook published by Northwestern University Library, “Global Transactions and Regulation: Political, Legal, and Cultural Frameworks,” which examines current and relevant business, legal, regulatory, and ethical issues that arise when commercial transactions across national borders. Prior to her textbook, Ms. Kruse wrote the critically acclaimed, best-selling novel “Butterfly Stitching,” inspired by the true experiences of herself and the women in her family before and after the Iranian revolution. In addition to her teaching corporate and negotiations experience, Ms. Kruse was a partner at the law firm of Barack Ferrazzano where she represented international and Fortune 500 companies for 17 years. Her nearly two-decade-long legal practice provided her with in-depth knowledge of corporate business management, high-stakes negotiations, and complex cross-border transactions.Ms. Kruse is a frequent speaker on issues relating to stoic and tactical empathy, complex negotiation, stoicism, idea curation, change agency, leadership, and professional development. She was recently named as the annual Woman Extraordinaire by the International Women Associates, featured by WomanScape Magazine for her global humanitarian work, and named one of the nation’s top 100 “Women to Watch” by BizWomen Magazine, one of Chicago’s most influential women by Chicago Business Journal, and one of Chicago’s Women of Inspiration by Today’s Chicago Magazine. Dedicated to her local and global community, Ms. Kruse is the founder of multiple national and global non-profits and NGOs. Ms. Kruse's greatest professional joy comes from helping her boards, clients, and students augment their reality to the next level.