He is scheduled to speak during an evening event on Monday, July 25 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev. The keynote, "Breaking Cycles," is sponsored by Blue Bird Corporation and REI with a book signing and reception scheduled for immediately afterward. The STN EXPO begins July 23 and concludes on July 27.

Gardner is the owner and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC, a firm that specializes in public pension funds and Taft-Hartley plans. But Gardner is best known as the author of the New York Times and Washington Post best-selling autobiography The Pursuit of Happyness that was developed into a movie of the same name in 2006 starring Will Smith. The movie is the No. 2 all-time domestic grossing drama. Smith received Academy Award, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance. Gardner was an associate producer on the film.

The story chronicles Gardner's upbringing marked by poverty, domestic violence, sexual abuse and family illiteracy. His troubles grew as an adult when his investment in a bone density scanner device failed to work out. Long interested in finance, but without a college degree much less an MBA, Gardner accepted an internship at Dean Witter Reynolds, but the job paid next to nothing, and his wife left him. Gardner soon lost his house and became homeless along with his son.

"I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children they were going to know who their father is, and that he isn’t going anywhere," said Gardner.

He later worked at Bear Stearns and Co., where he became a top earner. In 1987 he started Gardner Rich LLC in Chicago from his home and with just $10,000. The company has since grown into an institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt and equity product transactions for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension plans and unions.

But much of his attention remains on homeless issues and improving the well-being of children through positive paternal involvement. He received the Father of the Year Award in 2002 from the National Fatherhood Initiative, a group for which he now serves as a board member. He also serves on the boards of the National Education Foundation and the International Rescue Committee. He is a regular guest on CNN, CNBC and the Fox News Channel and has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, The View, CBS Evening News, 20/20, Entertainment Tonight and in various national newspapers and publications.

Gardner wrote a second book, Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, in 2009.