Top 50 Change Management Speakers
- By Aaron Peterson
- Oct 03, 2023
One thing is certain about life: it changes. Nothing is certain, and business professionals need to be ready to embrace and adapt to anything that’s thrown at them. Change management speakers are experts when it comes to creating and implementing changes within a business. Our top 50 change management speakers excel at talking to workers, stakeholders, and executives about the impact of change and how to make it work effectively.
Change Enthusiasm Global is Cassandra Worthy’s consultancy and proof that she is an expert on change management. But, change management isn’t enough, you also have to grow through the changes you make. She built her expertise through 15 years with Berkshire Hathaway and Procter & Gamble and helped navigate massive acquisitions in the process. Let her share her tips with you so that your changes accomplish everything you hope.
2. Safi Bahcall
Safi Bahcall uses his knowledge of business, history, and physics to gain insights into group behavior. This helps him structure changes without teams and leaders resisting them, something he honed in his time on President Obama’s Council of Science Advisors. He shares his talents in the book “How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries.”
3. Ichak Adizes
He developed the Adizes Methodology for Organizational Therapy and Development through his change management company the Adizes Institute. Ichak Adizes is recognized as one of the “Top 30 Thought Leaders on Leadership” and received a lifetime achievement award from the International Academy of Management for his excellence in the field.
Dr. Michelle Rozen’s skill in change management that both improves revenues and employee performance has helped companies like Johnson & Johnson and Merrill Lynch. She’s also advised the U.S. Navy. Ask her to talk about the “2-Minute Decisions,” which are methods Dr. Rozen uses to make decisions without losing sight of time management.
Frits Van Paasschen is the author of “The Disruptors’ Feast,” and that book shares the experience he’s gained after three decades advising companies around the world. He’s been the CEO at Coors Brewing Company and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, as well as Nike, Disney’s Consumer Products Division, and management consulting for The Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Company. As a change management expert, he speaks five languages and is open to keynotes, custom appearances, and partnerships.
6. Adam Markel
Adam Markel is a resilience researcher who helps people and organizations use the power of resilience to conquer constant change. Before he worked as a trial attorney and CEO of a personal development and business training company, he was an ocean first responder. That put him in life-and-death situations where adapting to sudden change was essential. He shares the skills he’s learned in his book “Change Proof.”
7. Ken Schmidt
Ken Schmidt believes you can stand out or get lost in a crowd. Changing yourself or your company to stand out is essential for success, and he put that to the test when he became the media relations and change management specialist for Harley-Davidson. His expertise in change management focuses on three questions regarding what helps a company connect with people. If you can’t do that, you’re not going to thrive.
Gabor George Burt created the Slingshot Framework, an expansion of his Blue Ocean Strategy framework. The Slingshot Framework uses creative thinking to overcome boundaries you create for yourself in order to change the future. Companies that embrace the Slingshot Framework increase growth by upwards of 300%.
9. Joel Manby
Joel Manby has been the CEO of many corporations, including SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, for more than two decades. He uses the skills he’s developed to help other boards and CEOs with change management. Read about them in his book “Love Works. Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders,” and then book him to talk about “Five Steps to Culture Transformation.”
Kaihan Krippendorff started his career in growth strategy and innovation counseling at McKinsey & Company but left that position to found his own change management firm, Outthinker, where he founded the Outthinker Strategy Network, a network of CSOs from organizations exceeding $1 billion, all organizations he’s helped guide through change. Kaihan is also the author of an Edison Award-nominated book “Driving Innovation From Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs.”
11. Seth Mattison
Seth Mattison is a highly sought-after advisor and keynote speaker on change and innovation, digital transformation, change leadership, and talent management. He’s helped AT&T, the Dallas Cowboys, IBM, MasterCard, Pepsi, and many others address, plan, and manage company changes and restructurings through his company FutureSight Labs, an organizational design and transformation firm.
12. Bob Sutton
Bob Sutton, Ph.D. excels in organizational change, change leadership, and team building, and he shares his insights as a Stanford Professor of Management Science and Engineering and through his book “The No Asshole Rule.” He taps into his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology to help provide the insights that help organizations navigate all aspects of change.
13.Anne Harbison
Dr. Anne Harbison has helped organizations and world leaders transform
and adapt to change. She gained her skills at Procter & Gamble where
she was a brand management specialist, before she left and moved to Gallup
where she was the Principal Strategic Consultant. She excels in leadership
transformation and adapting to transitions through solid change management
methods.
She’s the owner of N-Compass Consulting, a consultancy that helps clients from around the globe as they navigate change. She’s worked with Deepak Chopra at “The Power Within” live event, and consulted with a slew of global companies and organizations as they navigate big changes, including the U.S. Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, and Nationwide.
15. Todd Hewlin
Todd Hewlin is the Managing Director at TCG Advisors, a Silicon Valley growth strategy firm. He’s also the author of “Goliath’s Revenge: How Established Companies Turn the Tables on Digital Disruptors.” He’s an expert on digital disruption and how it impacts companies and organizations.
16. Nick Tasler
Nick Tasler writes a leadership column for Harvard Business Review. He’s an organizational psychologist and thought leader known around the world, and to the companies he’s helped, including Wells Fargo and Yale University. Among his many talks have been popular ones like “What to Do When Change Happens” or “The Change Lessons Most Leaders Forget.”
17. Shawn Achor
Shawn Achor’s expertise in change management taps into finding the balance between your potential and your happiness. He’s the author of the “Happiness Advantage,” and uses that to dive into change management. He believes that a positive attitude is key to conquering any challenges you face with change. Ask him about his popular keynote “The Ripple Effect: How to Make Positive Change Easier.”
Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman’s approach to change management is to first build a culture of trust, courage, and commitment. When you manage that, you make it easier to break through barriers, adapt to change, and overcome adversity. Where did he learn his change management skills? He was a fighter pilot who wanted to achieve his dreams, but he first had to overcome his fear of heights. He also has an MBA in Organizational Behavior that provides even more insight into addressing change within a company.
19. Caleb Gardner
Caleb Gardner is the author of “No Point B: New Rules for Leading Change in the New Hyper-Connected, Radically Conscious Economy” and founded 18 Coffees, an innovation consulting agency. He’s helped companies like Comcast and United Way Worldwide manage change.
20. Melissa Agnes
Crisis Ready Institute is a corporation offering certification and training programs for professionals who need to protect people, their brands, the economy, or the environment. Melissa Agnes is the CEO and founder, and through her insights, she’s helped the Pentagon, NATO, healthcare companies, luxury brands, and many other companies navigate change. Melissa is one of our most popular change and crisis management speakers with popular keynotes like “Choosing Your Lens: Transforming Issues Into Opportunities.”
21. Lonnie Mayne
Lonnie Mayne is the founder and CEO of Red Shoes Living, Inc., a firm that sets a framework for change leadership, workplace culture, customer experiences, and living your life to the fullest. His framework has helped Bose, Make-a-Wish, McDonald’s, Nike, and many other major companies and brands. For his keynotes and presentations, he’s talked to small groups or crowds at London’s Palace of Westminster.
22. Jill Ratliff
For more than 25 years, Jill Ratliff has been in HR management roles for Fortune 100 companies, including as the Executive VP of Human Resources at ING North America. She specializes in large-scale change management and company transformations and wrote a book about it titled “Leadership Through Trust & Collaboration: Practical Tools For Today’s Results-Driven Leaders.”
23. Sunny Grosso
Sunny Grosso is an expert in creating positive experiences through change. She’s a founding member of Delivering Happiness Coach|Sulting, and she’s also a master coach and global speaker. She has more than 10 years of experience in facilitating, managing, and adapting to change.
24. Aaron Bare
Aaron Bare created the Exponential Theory, a method that taps into the power of thinking bigger to be more aware. He tapped into 15 years of research and travel in order to study disruption and how companies can use that to their advantage. He helps companies transform through change both digitally and in their business model.
Christine Hassler’s career started in Hollywood as a Hollywood agent. She’s an expert in overcoming adversity and established Elementum Coaching Institute, a training and certification program for coaches. Her book “Expectation Hangover: Overcoming Disappointment in Work, Love, and Life” is a key point in her keynotes and presentations.
26. Brandon Williams
Brandon Williams is one of our top business speakers and leadership coaches. He built his skill as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, where he was a strong team leader. A strong team is a key component in change management, and his keynote “Leading Through Change and Complexity: A Fighter Pilot’s Perspective” is one of his most popular.
27. Paul Epstein
Paul Epstein is known as the “Go-To Fixer” for the NBA, NFL, and some executive offices, too. He’s an expert in “Come-From-Behind” wins. It takes a strong team and workplace culture. His expertise in change involves cultural transformations and identifying and using your company’s culture to excel.
28. Mark Hoffman
Mark Hoffman has won awards as a resilience and crisis management consultant. He’s the co-founder and managing partner at Resilience Think Tank, a company that helps identify risks and focus on thought leadership to become resilient to change. With many choices for change management speakers, Mark has a unique keynote that’s a great option: “You’ve Been Hacked: An Exercise Exploring How You Will Respond to a Ransomware Attack” and “How Can You Make Your Organization More Resilient: Practical Advice.”
29. Kim Perell
She’s a CEO, angel investor, and serial entrepreneur. Kim Perell is an expert in helping people navigate career changes and challenges and has change management classes she teaches through “Entrepreneur Magazine” that have been taken by more than 10,000 business leaders so far. She has three popular keynotes, including “Pivoting to Success: How to Make Business Pivots That Pay Off.”
30. Tom Flick
Tom Flick played on five NFL teams in seven years before he moved to motivational speaking. He worked with Dr. John Kotter and tapped into his insights leading NFL teams as a quarterback to develop key skills with change leadership and change management.
31. Gina Trimarco
Gina Trimarco established Improvised Intelligence™ to help business leaders and organizations use emotional intelligence to build strong relationships and change leadership. She trained with Players Workshop of Second City and Second City to master improv, which gives her incredible insight into being ready for anything that’s thrown your way.
32. Ryan Berman
Using 20 years in reinvention, Ryan Berman founded Courageous, a platform that delves into what it means to be courageous and address the hardships that change can bring. He’s a firm believer that while change is hard, not changing is harder. Ryan offers custom experiences and is available for keynotes.
Nick Santonastasso was born with Hanhart Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that left him with no legs and only one warm. Despite this, he’s excelled at everything he’s tried, including becoming a bodybuilder, fitness model, and high school athlete. He’s an inspiration when it comes to adapting to change and using it to your advantage.
34. Chris Moon
Chris Moon is a popular change management keynote speaker and uses the lessons he’s learned after more than two decades in public and private companies and at international business schools. After losing both an arm and leg in a minefield in East Africa, doctors were shocked he survived, but he recovered 4x faster than expected and ran a marathon within the year. No matter what has been thrown his way, he grows through the change and uses it to become more resilient.
35. Libby Gill
Libby Gill attended eight schools on two continents before she paid for college by waiting tables. She left college and took a position at Norman Lear’s Embassy Communications. Making it through three mergers, she triumphed and was Head of Publicity, Advertising, and Promotion when Sony took over five years later. She’s bound through each change to make the most of it and thrive. For her keynotes and consultancies, she shares her lessons on reframing change, developing the best teams, and inspiring company culture in positive ways.
36. Gary Bradt
Dr. Gary Bradt specializes in adapting to change with ease and as quickly as possible. His passion for change management started when his son was born with heart issues that required open-heart surgery at four months and a second surgery a few weeks later. He watched his son fight to breathe and realized that no matter what you face, you can conquer changes successfully with just a few tools.
37. Jonah Berger
He’s a Wharton School Professor with more than 80 articles to his name in academic journals. Jonah Berger also teaches the online change management course “Removing Barriers to Change” through the University of Pennsylvania. He’s the author of “The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind” and has used the insights he’s learned over the years to help companies like Amazon, Apple, Moderna, and Nike adapt to change.
38. Gordon Tredgold
Gordon Tredgold is a Global Gurus “Top 10 Leadership Expert,” and his specialty involves helping transform companies, teams, and individuals. He has three books, including the Chartered Management Institute finalist “FAST – 4 Principles Every Business Needs to Drive Success and Achieve Results.” His expertise in change management focuses on team building and high-performance workplace culture.
39. Brandon Steiner
Brandon Steiner uses his insights from his childhood business delivering newspapers through his adult years in professional sports after purchasing Yankee Stadium. He’s an excellent change management speaker with topics like “Being the Underdog & Adapting to Change.”
40. Nikka Copeland
Nikka Copeland is the Senior Vice President at World Fuel Services Corporation and led the company through a global change that was both efficient and effective. She’s a firm believer that people are the most important part of change management and that without key stakeholders and employees working together, change isn’t effective.
41. Jeff Kreisler
Jeff Kreisler is the Head of Behavioral Science at JP Morgan Chase and an expert in thought leadership. His book “Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter” is a guide in behavioral economics, something that’s important to any successful restructuring or major change within a business.
42. Jason Lauritsen
Jason Lauritsen has been both an entrepreneur and corporate executive, and he led Quantum Workplace’s “Best Places to Work” program for a number of years. In that time, he studied what makes companies stand out and engage and retain their employees. He shares his insights in “Unlocking High Performance: How to Use Performance Management to Engage and Empower Employees to Reach Their Full Potential.”
As a change management speaker, Katherine MacLane customizes her keynotes and experiences to ensure your group has the information they need to plan and manage change and the growth that follows. She’s known as the person to lead the “Pretty Woman Hotel” as it transitioned into a Four Seasons.
44. William Young
Bill Young spent six years at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where he was Assistant Chief of Operations and Commander of the Emergency Response Team for Chenega Security and Support Solutions. He landed those jobs after 19 years with the Pennsylvania State Police where he was the commander of the Special Emergency Response Team West, a high-pressure position that required precision and quick adjustments to sudden changes.
45. Connie Podesta
She’s talked to over 1,000 organizations and 2 million people in her 25-year career. Connie Podesta is an award-winning author, HR expert, and specialist on change management, life balance, and leadership development. Most importantly, she uses humor to share her lessons, which makes her such an in-demand speaker.
46. Jann Freed
Jann Freed, Ph.D. is a consultant specializing in leadership development, change management, and employee engagement. She created “The Breadcrumb Legacy™,” a method she teaches to help people find meaning through small actions. She taught college for three decades before leaving to become an organizational development expert at Genysys Group.
47. Kurt A. David
Kurt A. David is the author and creator of “From Glory Days – Successful Transitions of Professional Detroit Athletes.” He’s spent countless hours talking to professional athletes about their transition from professional sports to what comes after, and with their insight and his own experience after retiring from professional basketball, he shares what he’s learned. His 5 R.U.L.E.S program has helped companies like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, banks, government agencies, and many others.
48. Mike Lee
Mike Lee’s expertise in adversity, change, and disruption has helped both NBA players like Steph Curry to professionals at Cisco, IBM, and Morgan Stanley. He’s as good a keynote speaker as he is a leader of small leadership workshops.
Reynold N. Hoover’s experience in change management comes from his time in the U.S. military. In 35 years, General Hoover served as a Mobilization Assistant to the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. From 2009 to 2010, he handled theater-wide logistics in Afghanistan as the Commander of the Joint Sustainment Command. Following his military career, he remained active in crisis planning and change management while working on the Homeland Security Council, CIA, and FEMA.
50. Mina Park
For more than 20 years, Mina Park has helped develop and grow businesses. She’s led teams and strategic change management in small start-ups and billion-dollar industries. Currently, she’s helping Hanwha Solutions, a multi-national energy company, as it expands throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia. One of her popular speaking topics is “Leading With an Intuitive & Informed Strategic Vision.”
All of our change management speakers help businesses and organizations create plans for change that are realistic and beneficial. You won’t make illogical, uninformed changes that do more harm than good.
Communicate those changes with workers and shareholders, and make sure those parties are on the same page. Finally, our change management speakers provide you with the tools and insights you need to assess the changes you’ve made and ensure they’re working. Reach out to your top choices and arrange a custom event, keynote, or workshop today.
