Event Three
Agency, Autonomy, and Choosing to Lead a Different Way
Moving from permission and control to ownership, contribution, and courageous action
The future will not be built by people waiting for permission.
It will be built by leaders who recognize their agency, take responsibility for what they can change, and create the conditions for others to do the same.
Mathias Ihlenfeld, founder of woom bikes USA, will share the entrepreneurial journey that began with a remarkable children's bicycle, a belief in its potential, and the decision to bring it from Europe to the United States. Starting from a small Austin garage, Mathias built the U.S. business one bike, one customer, and one hard-earned lesson at a time — ultimately scaling it into one of the country's fastest-growing direct-to-consumer children's bike brands.
His story is about more than company growth. It is about conviction without certainty, action without permission, and the willingness to learn through rejection, operational pressure, and the inevitable mistakes that accompany building something new.
The experience will expand through a conversation with Katrina Engleman and serial entrepreneur Henrik Johansson about the power of Makers over Takers.
Here, "maker" is not limited to someone who manufactures a physical product. A maker is anyone who accepts responsibility for contributing, improving, solving, creating, or serving. The distinction is not a judgment about people; it is a challenge to examine our choices. Are we adding value or merely extracting it? Are we waiting for someone else to act, or are we willing to help build what is needed?
Together, the speakers will explore what becomes possible when leaders replace control with context, give capable people room to move, and build cultures in which initiative is expected, experimentation is protected, and contribution matters more than status.
Guests will leave challenged to reclaim authorship of their work, examine where control may be limiting the people around them, and make one courageous choice toward becoming the kind of leader — and maker — the future requires.
Featuring Mathias Ihlenfeld, Katrina Engleman, and Henrik Johansson