Heather McGowan
One of Forbes' Top Futurists, Heather E. McGowan is a globally recognized future-of-work strategist, keynote speaker, and 2x bestselling author who equips leaders and organizations to navigate relentless change by activating their most critical resource: their people. By teaching people to ask better questions, she empowers them to adapt at the speed of possibility to build exceptional cultures that Solve Tomorrow's Problems™.
One of Forbes' Top Futurists, Heather E. McGowan is a sought-after future-of-work strategist, keynote speaker, and 2x bestselling author. She equips leaders and organizations to navigate relentless change by activating their most critical resource: their people. By teaching audiences to ask better questions, she enables them to adapt at the speed of possibility to Solve Tomorrow's Problems™.
Heather’s audiences range from startups and government organizations to publicly traded Fortune 500 companies, including Google, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Mastercard, FedEx, AT&T, and Kaiser Permanente. Whether she's engaging in intimate conversations with senior executives or delivering keynotes to thousands, she transforms perspectives through data-driven insights, powerful visual frameworks, and practical optimism. Her approach helps organizations turn their distinctly human capabilities—adaptability, empathy, and curiosity—into strategic advantages in times of rapid change.
Heather's approach to innovation was shaped by her early career as an industrial designer. At Safety 1st, she helped transform the company known for its "Baby on Board" sign in to a comprehensive baby safety products' leader, developing multiple top-selling products. Her success continued at Wilson Sporting Goods', where she designed award-winning tennis footwear. Her innovative work extended to medical devices, where she designed surgical equipment controls, and sustainable consumer goods, creating a groundbreaking recyclable razor system that remains in production two decades later.
This hands-on experience taught her that true innovation isn't just about finding solutions—it's about asking better questions to Solve Tomorrow’s Problems. After earning her MBA from Babson College, Heather expanded into socially responsive investing and later led RISD's Center for Design and Business, helping organizations integrate user-centric design thinking into business strategy.
As Strategic Architect at Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University), Heather created an award-winning, interdisciplinary college focused on innovation. Her achievements included integrating 18 existing programs into a new core curriculum and creating an immersive design thinking-based program. The curriculum won the Core 77 top National Design Award for Education.
Heather’s emergence as a global thought leader began with a viral LinkedIn series on the future of work—reaching 100,000 readers in 24 hours—which sparked speaking invitations worldwide. Often quoted in The New York Times, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman referred to Heather as an “oasis” for her insights into the future of work. Her bestselling books include The Adaptation Advantage, which became an accidental guide to the pandemic, and The Empathy Advantage, named a Top 10 Business Book of 2023.
Heather holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design, an MBA from Babson College focused on Entrepreneurship, and was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design for her contributions to innovating education.
Personal experiences, like mobilizing 7,000 strangers to find a life-saving bone marrow donor for her brother, fuel Heather's unwavering optimism and core belief: humans are wired to help each other achieve extraordinary things. This drives her mission: to help leaders Solve Tomorrow's Problems™ by teaching them to ask better questions today.
SOLVE TOMORROW’S PROBLEMS™
Harness Human Ingenuity to Navigate What's Next
Think organizations can't change quickly? History proves otherwise.
When naysayers said "it can't be done," humans accomplished the impossible—in weeks, not years. Each pivotal moment reminds us of humanity’s most underestimated asset: our ability to adapt in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
In this perspective-shifting keynote, Heather challenges the myth that we resist change using unforgettable stories about a mop, a burrito, and a hermit crab to demonstrate how we can tap into our natural curiosity and hardwired drive to collaborate to see and shape what’s next.
Drawing from her bestselling books “The Adaptation Advantage” and “The Empathy Advantage,” Heather reveals how leading organizations thrive when they place adaptability at their core, allowing them to find breakthrough opportunities where others least expect them.
THE AUGMENTED ADVANTAGE
Unleashing Human Potential in the AI Era
Think you can't remember phone numbers like you used to? You're not alone. As we hand off more tasks to technology, some of our more-human capabilities will naturally fade. Yet while automation may lead to atrophy in some areas, augmentation opens doors to entirely new human capabilities—if we are intentional. The key isn’t only using AI to replace what we currently do by automating it, but transforming work as we know it.
In this eye-opening presentation, Heather cuts through the AI hype to demonstrate why thriving alongside AI isn't about having the right answers. Instead, it's about asking better questions, framing new challenges, and treating AI as our partner—enhancing our capabilities and expanding our cognitive horizons.
THE CURIOSITY ADVANTAGE
Leading in the Age of Uncertainty
Remember when being a leader meant having all the answers? Today's most successful leaders are asking better questions. In a world of unprecedented opportunity, they’re not the most certain, but the most curious. According to research, this shift in profile—from know-it-alls to learn-it-alls—means we may be overlooking the very leaders we need right now.
In this paradigm-shifting talk, Heather reveals why the future belongs to forward-thinking leaders who can navigate relentless change by activating their team’s innate potential to learn, adapt, and grow.
Drawing on her bestselling books The Adaptation Advantage and The Empathy Advantage, along with compelling research and real-world examples, she demonstrates how exceptional performance depends on empowering rather than managing, building trust rather than enforcing processes, and harnessing collective intelligence for breakthrough results.
CLEAR ON PURPOSE
Turning Purpose into Performance Through a Shared Vision
In an era of unprecedented social division, our professional success hinges not on discussing politics at work, but on mastering the tools of constructive dialogue—active listening, intellectual humility, and genuine curiosity—to create environments where diverse perspectives transform friction into fuel for innovation.
The ability to bridge divides through emotional intelligence and skilled communication may be our most valuable professional competency in today's interconnected world. When organizational purpose aligns with human potential, extraordinary things happen.
In this inspirational keynote drawn from Heather’s most recent book, The Empathy Advantage, Heather reveals how purpose can become your organization’s most powerful performance driver.
Through compelling research and real-world examples, she demonstrates how a shared vision can create the trust, belonging, and motivation needed to transform individual potential into collective impact—through increasing engagement, reducing turnover, and unleashing performance.
By getting clear on purpose, we don't just adapt to change—we shape the future.
START WITH TRUST
The Lifeblood of High-Performing Teams
Despite disruptions like technology shifts and social changes, businesses today have a unique opportunity to tap into measurable advantages when it comes to engagement, innovation, and profitability—and it all begins with TRUST.
Just as humanity's greatest achievements arose from collective effort, cohesive teams innovate faster, adapt more effectively, maintain higher engagement, experience lower turnover, and consistently outperform their peers.
In this powerful presentation drawn from her two most recent books The Adaptation Advantage and The Empathy Advantage, Heather shares proven tools audiences can use to activate their natural collaborative strengths so they can achieve extraordinary results, gain a competitive advantage, and drive sustainable growth.
Heather is my go-to -person because there are a lot of mirages out there when it comes to the Future of Work and she is the oasis. She is the real deal. Her ability to convey information in both words and visuals together are really powerful.
Thomas L Friedman, Columnist, New York Times + Pulitzer Prize Winner Author
I knew within the first 60 seconds of speaking to Heather that she was the right fit for our executive leadership meeting which was centered around the future of work. Heather shared rich data and personal insights that most of our leaders had never seen before and brought it to life in a very real, digestible and credible way. Her presentation really opened our eyes and gave us a glimpse into what's to come. She was, simply put, awe inspiring.
Denise Williams, Chief People Officer, FIS Global
Heather is an exceptional thought leader. Her ability to anticipate emerging trends, and synthesize information about the future of business, is truly remarkable. I've had the great pleasure of working with Heather over many years, and her insights have helped our business and our clients prepare for the future.
Rueben Young, Head of Amplify Thought Leadership And Innovation, AMP
Heather has a mind who can hold so much complexity combined with the rare gift of making these complex and highly emotive ideas so clear and accessible through her visualizations, models and straight talk -no academic or corporate jargon ... just relatable facts, insights, and powerful stories and metaphors.
Annalie Killian, Vice President of Partnerships, Sparks + Honey
Engaging content. Articulate and personable. Well researched. Interactive and fun! Heather brought all of this and more. We needed a speaker who could address the future work, and Heather’s message about adaptation touched on a number of topics relevant to our workforce, such as learning, distributed work, collaboration and leadership. In this “new normal” of work from home and virtual meetings, Heather adapted her content to our needs in an interactive and meaningful way.
Executive, Okta.com
As a university president, entrepreneur, and board member, I have never ever seen anyone better than Heather at demystifying complex information to provide a path to action.
Stephen Spinelli Jr., PhD, Babson College President + Co-Founder, Jiffy Lube + Board Chair, Planet Fitness
In the war for talent, organizations must be able to offer employees a path that goes beyond typical career progression. Heather presents a compelling and thought provoking vision that focuses on lifelong learning and adaptability for employees, which the pace of technological change essentially requires. Her analysis is comprehensive, yet easily understood. She distills it into actionable steps to help organizations move towards creating an environment in which employees and organizations mutually benefit and are well positioned for an uncertain future.
Charles Moore, Managing Director, Alvarez and Marsal
We could not have been more pleased with Heather’s presentation at our virtual user conference. As it was our first time hosting the event virtually, we wanted to ensure that our Kickoff event was engaging and insightful—and Heather delivered! Attendees raved about her, and we would not hesitate to work with her again.
Katharine Mobley, CMO, First Advantage
Heather has an uncanny ability to help an audience visualize the complete interdependencies influencing the way we learn, work and live so we can better prepare for the coming technology-driven shifts. As a summit curator, I found her to be a real pleasure to work with and highly regarded among her peers and those involved in shaping the future of work.
Julia Douthart, CEO, Work ReBooted Conference
In a world where speakers claim to be experts, Heather is a genuine expert who can speak.
Peter Sheahan, CEO, Karrikins Group
Heather is in a category of her own—a singularly gifted strategist who sees the future and communicates it with clarity.
Randy Swearer, Vice President, Autodesk
Heather provided the spark, the insights, and the energy to move our HR team forward. Her talk had something for everyone on our team, from our centers of excellence to our HR partners, from our leaders to our operations team, from our learning team to our compensation group. In particular, her discussion of the future of work and the importance of learning at the heart of organizational life really hit home for all of us.
Robin Pelzman, Executive Human Resource Leader, Biogen
I was fortunate to hear Heather speak at the Innovation in the "Age of Accelerations" Forum. She is an amazing communicator and a driving force, inspiring new relevant perspectives. Her presentation is a "must see" by leaders across government, academia, and industry who should be preparing our society for the future of work and the future of learning...the future of work is learning!
James Johnson Executive Director Air Force Human Resilience (Major General), USAF
Heather 'simplifies the complex' with stories and visuals delivered in an authentic and engaging manner that leave people feeling empowered to become adaptable, lifelong learners.
Heather Dawson, Global Program Leader, Morningstar
I invited Heather to speak at a National Conference for Achieving the Dream, speaking to a crowd of 3000 people. She was amazing! Her ability to connect with the audience and educate at the same time was masterful. She was inspiring and thought provoking and even sprinkled in a little humor. The audience loved her, which was evidenced by the long line of attendees wanting to speak with her after the event! Heather is a great speaker!
Bonita Brown, Chief Strategy Officer, Northern Kentucky University
Heather has a unique ability to communicate complex information that is accessible to the public AND credible to the expert. She gave a superb online talk at the record breaking 'Brainfood Marathon 2020', which was not only the most watched of the 80+ sessions across the 24 hours, but 'most requested' by those missed it. If you are looking for an expert analyst on the future of work who can speak to the widest possible audience, look no further than Heather McGowan.
Founder & CEO, Workshape.io, Wendy Dietzler, Events & Production Manager, ASQ
The Adaptation Advantage
The Empathy Advantage
