August 2020 as published on RealLeaders. If you’re a leader looking for a top keynote speaker, someone to inspire your team, or for a notable inspirational speaker to motivate your company during tough times, these highly-focused, expert professional women will help take things to the next level. The list below features just some of the high-achieving women, from across the world of business, athletics, and entertainment that will give you and your associates the tools needed to create a competitive advantage. These leaders have stayed relentless in their commitment to making a difference (digitally and virtually for now) and have found their voices needed more than ever. Many have incredible personal stories to tell and are sure to inspire.
Carla Harris
A top finance keynote speaker, Carla Harris is a Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She has been named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, and she is the past Chair of the Board of the Morgan Stanley Foundation.
Tan Le
Tan Le is a top innovation keynote speaker, technology entrepreneur, author, and founder and CEO of EMOTIV. Her company is an industry leader in brain wearables, which offers access to advanced brain monitoring. Le was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2013, and she currently sits on the Board of Stewards on Shaping the Future of Information & Entertainment of the World Economic Forum.
Vernice FlyGirl Armour
Vernice FlyGirl Armour is a top inspirational keynote speaker, former combat pilot, and author of Zero to Breakthrough. She has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, The View, FOX News, Oprah Winfrey, and others. She commands audiences around the globe and inspires them to perform at their best.
Bethenny Frankel
A self-made businesswoman, author, TV producer, and best-selling author, Bethenny Frankel is a top business keynote speaker. She is the founder of Skinnygirl, which popularized the low-calorie cocktail. She also starred on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City.
Barb Steggeman
Barb Stegemann is a top motivational keynote speaker, social entrepreneur, one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women. A bestselling author, she became known when she was the first woman from Atlantic Canada to score a venture-capital deal on the CBC shoe Dragon’s Den. She was recently featured on Sephora’s Instagram Live promoting her new contemporary brand of make-up.
Natalie Nixon
Dr. Natalie Nixon is a top change management keynote speaker, consultant, and a strategy, foresight, and innovation expert. She advises leaders on how to use their creativity to leverage innovation within the organization. Nixon is also the Founder and President of Figure 8 Thinking.
Laila Ali
Laila Ali is a world-class athlete, top motivational keynote speaker, fitness & wellness expert, TV host, cooking enthusiast, founder of the Laila Ali Lifestyle Brand, and mother of two. She has appeared on Food Network’s Celebrity version of Chopped and won both times. Laila recently released her own cookbook, “Food for Life: Delicious and Healthy Comfort Food from my Table to Yours.”
Nicole Malachowski
A former White House advisor, Colonel Nicole Malachowski is a top motivational keynote speaker, and the first female Thunderbird pilot. She is a member of the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Nicole’s operational F-15E assignments include two tours of duty at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom as well as one operational assignment to Seymour Johnson AFB, NC.
Julie Zhuo
Julie Zhuo is a top management keynote speaker, former VP of Facebook product design, and the bestselling author of The Making of a Manager. Julie has led teams behind some of Facebook’s most popular mobile and web services, such as Facebook’s News Feed, the “like” button, and user profiles. As Facebook grew, so did her role and now she leads a team of more than 250 employees.
Jane Chen
Jane Marie Chen is a top entrepreneur speaker and the co-founder and CEO of Embrace, a social enterprise that aims to help the 15 million premature and low birth-weight babies born every year, through a low-cost infant warmer. Her innovative idea takes the place of costly and technical incubators, allowing her technology to reach more remote villages around the world.
Liz Wiseman
Liz Wiseman is a top leadership keynote speaker, researcher, and executive advisor who teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, and Wall Street Journal bestseller Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work.
Libby Gill
Libby Gill is a top change management keynote speaker, executive coach, and CEO of Libby Gill & Company. After heading communications at media giants Universal, Sony, and Turner Broadcasting, Libby left the corporate world after nearly twenty years to become an entrepreneur.
Erica Dhawan
A top leadership speaker, Erica Dhawan is the co-author of the bestselling book Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, named #1 on What Corporate America is Reading. She is also the Founder & CEO of Cotential, a global organization that helps companies, leaders, and managers leverage 21st-century collaboration skills to improve performance.
Jodi Womack
Jodi is a top personal development speaker who coaches busy professionals to get momentum at work and in life. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Get Momentum Leadership Academy, and she brings her first-hand experience in business development with her to her keynotes.
Patricia Aburdene
Patricia Aburdene is a top business keynote speaker and bestselling author. After five years as a “Top 100 Thought Leader in Trustworthy Business,” Patricia was awarded Trust Across America’s Life Time Achievement Award. She also serves on the Vail Leadership Institute’s Board of Scholars.
Janice Bryant Howroyd
A top business keynote speaker, Janice Bryant Howroyd is the Founder and CEO of the ActOne Group. She is on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women and in 2016, she received an appointment by President Barack Obama as a member of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Carol Seymour
Carol is a top leadership and business keynote speaker. In 2013 she founded Signature Leaders and she has also facilitated discussion with Condoleezza Rice, Greg Norman, Fred Smith, Paul Azinger, Larry Bossidy, Doris Kearns Goodwin, among others. She also launched TWOthroughYOU, an initiative asking leaders to take individual ownership of sponsoring two female leaders behind them.
Sheryl Connelly
Sheryl Connelly is a top innovation keynote speaker and has served as the in-house futurist for Ford Motor Company for over a decade. She is a member of the Global Advisory Council on transportation for the World Economic Forum, and Fast Company named her one of the Most Creative People in Business in 2013 and 2015.
Kimberly Bryant
Kimberly Bryant is a top diversity keynote speaker, creator of Black Girls Code, and 2015 Apple Stem Partner. She was recognized as one of “The Top 25 Most Influential African Americans” by Business Insider, and she serves on the National Champions Board for the National Girls Collaborative Project.
Liza Pavlakos
Liza is a top entrepreneur keynote speaker, survivor, and author. Her story is truly incredible; from homeless to millionaire, she has been featured on CNN as a top thought leader in entrepreneurship. At age 23, she organized the Miss India pageant that ran successfully for five years.
Lavinia Errico
A top entrepreneur keynote speaker, Lavinia Errico is the founder of Equinox Fitness Clubs. After selling her fitness empire, she became an angel investor and financed many companies that went on to do great things in the business world. She now chooses to inspire others to be at peace with their situation and helps people align with their true selves.
JJ DiGeronimo
JJ DiGeronimo is a top technology keynote speaker, author, and executive strategist. She is a featured columnist for Smart Business Magazine and has been quoted in numerous publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox Business to name a few. She recently received the Innovation Award from the Small Business Network and was recognized as one of the Top 25 People in Technology in “Inside Business Cleveland”.
Susan Packard
Susan Packard is the founder of Scripps Networks Interactive and former chief operating officer of HGTV. Under her lead, HGTV became one of the biggest and fastest-growing television channels in history. Packard helped Scripps network grow to over $15 billion.
Blake Morgan
A leader in customer experience, Blake Morgan also is a top motivation keynote speaker and author. Blake is a guest lecturer at Columbia University as well as an adjunct professor at the Rutgers executive education MBA program. She has worked with companies such as Verizon and Comcast to name a few.
Crystal Washington
Crystal Washington is a top social media keynote speaker and a leader in the technology strategist field. She has worked with Google, Microsoft, and GE, helping them make their technology easily accessible and user-friendly. She has been featured in several publications such as The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur Magazine for her expertise on apps.
Bridget Brennan
Bridget Brennan is a top sales speaker and the CEO of Female Factor, a strategic consultancy, and author. She is a member of the Vikings Women Advisory Board of the Minnesota Vikings Football team, and she has served as an instructor at Northwestern University’s Medill School graduate program in marketing communications.
Patty Azzarello
Patty is a top leadership keynote speaker, executive, and bestselling author. she became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, and she ran a $1B software business at the age of 35. She also became a CEO at age 38, and she founded the Azzarello group to help CEO’s and Leadership teams improve their bottom line.
Dambisa Moyo
A top innovation keynote speaker, Dambisa Moyo influences decision-makers in investment opportunities and political decisions. She has been named to the list of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and has been published in the Financial Times, WSJ, Barrons, Harvard Business Review.
Jessica O. Matthews
Jessica Matthews is the founder and CEO of Uncharted Power, an award-winning power and data infrastructure technology company that develops infrastructure solutions for communities, facilities, and the Internet of Things. She was invited by President Barack Obama to the White House to represent small companies for the signing of the America Invents Act in 2012.
Amanda Gore
Amanda Gore is a top emotional intelligence keynote speaker and best selling author. She preaches that positivity helps workers reach their full potential, and consequently helps companies achieve more. She uses the principles of emotional intelligence to transform the spirit of people and cultures by changing perceptions, improving relationships, connecting people, managing change, leadership, innovation, and team dynamics.
Minda Harts
Minda Harts is a well-connected, sought-after speaker and thought-leader who frequently speaks on topics of advancing women of color, leadership, diversity, and entrepreneurship. In 2018, she was named one of 25 Emerging Innovators by American Express. Harts is an assistant professor of public service of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the Founder of The Memo LLC.
Amy Mahjoory
Amy is an expert Real Estate Investor & Educator, HGTV Personality, Best-Selling Author, Networking Coach, and top entrepreneur keynote speaker. For the past twenty-one years, Amy has studied the art of strategic networking. Before pursuing her passion for Entrepreneurship, Amy was a highly recognized global leader in Procurement, Logistics, and Operations Management for Dell.
Rinat Sherzer is an interdisciplinary social entrepreneur, biotech engineer & experience designer. Working at the intersection of tech, design & social good. She has over 12 years of product design and entrepreneurial experience. She lectures on Social Innovation and Human-Centered Design in various universities: Parsons, Cornell, Columbia University, and CCS.
Heather Monahan
Heather Monahan is a best-selling author, top inspirational keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Boss In Heels. Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, she is one of the few women to break the glass ceiling and claim her spot in the C-suite. As a chief revenue officer in media, Monahan is a Glass Ceiling Award winner, was named one of the Most Influential Women in Radio in 2017.
Marissa Orr
Marissa Orr is a top leadership keynote speaker, former Google & Facebook executive, and the bestselling author of Lean Out. She spent 15 years working at today’s top tech giants and has conducted talks for thousands of people in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, at companies and universities such as Google, Twitter, Pace University, New School, and American Express.
Risha Grant
Risha Grant is a top diversity and inclusion keynote speaker, founder & CEO of Risha Grant LLC, an award-winning diversity consulting and communications firm, and author of That’s BS! How Bias Synapse Disrupts Inclusive Cultures. Through her interactive keynotes and deep-dive training sessions, Risha teaches and empowers attendees with D&I tools to increase their bottom line.
Annie Duke
Annie Duke is a top business keynote speaker who leverages her expertise in the science of smart decision making to excel at pursuits as varied as championship poker to public speaking. On February 6, 2018, Annie’s first book for general audiences, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, was released by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Natalie Stavas
Dr. Natalie Stavas was approaching the finish line of her 5th Boston marathon when explosions shook the city Instinctively running towards the chaos that ravaged the renowned athletic event, she raced to save as many lives as possible, administering CPR, applying tourniquets and triaging the wounded.
All of these speakers can be booked for your next corporate event by contacting us at info@bigspeak.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
This article was originally published on BigSpeak Aug 26, 2020
