PROFILE
Drawing on decades of experience emboldening people and organizations worldwide, Dr. Margie Warrell brings a rare ability to bridge intellect and emotion—connecting strategy with psychology to equip leaders to navigate today’s complexity with greater clarity, conviction, and courage. A dynamic speaker with authentic Australian warmth, Margie has delivered high-impact presentations for organizations including NASA, US Special Operations, and Fortune 100 companies—earning standing ovations across industries and continents. Her message resonates whether she’s advising Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurial leaders, or Congressional Chiefs on Capitol Hill: courage is the ultimate differentiator—essential for taking smart risks, bridging divides, accelerating adaptation, and shaping a stronger future.
Margie has walked the talk. As a former Senior Partner in C-Suite Advisory at Korn Ferry, she has guided boards and C-suite leaders through critical challenges in leadership, team performance, succession, and cultural transformation. Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles with BP and KPMG before launching her own global consulting work. This blend of corporate, advisory, and entrepreneurial experience equips her with unique credibility when addressing the realities leaders face today.
Beyond the stage, Margie is a member of the HBR (Harvard Business Review) Advisory Council, a regular contributor to Forbes, Fast Company, and NBC, and a Women’s Economic Forum honoree. She has served on multiple advisory boards including the International Advisory Council, Women’s Democracy Network, and the Forbes School of Business & Technology. Margie was also Australia’s first Ambassador for Women in Global Business and has taken the TEDx stage to inspire thousands worldwide. Along the way, she has interviewed global icons such as Richard Branson, Bill Marriott, Stan McChrystal, and Steve Forbes.
Furthering her mission to close the ‘courage gap’ globally, Margie recently launched her latest LinkedIn Learning course, Activating Courage: Transform Discomfort into Bold, Confident Action. This digital program serves as a high-impact extension of her award-winning book, The Courage Gap—which received the 2025 Literary Titan Gold Book Award and the International Impact Book Award, as well as named by The Globe and Mail as one of the Best Management Books of 2025—providing leaders with a scalable framework to move beyond the safety of the status quo.
By blending the psychological insights found in her writing with the practical leadership strategies honed during her tenure at Korn Ferry, Margie ensures that her ‘courage strategist’ methodology is accessible to teams long after she leaves the keynote stage.
From a rural Australian dairy farm as a big sister of seven siblings to boardrooms and stages across Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America, Margie brings a global perspective to the universal challenges we all face. This lived international experience enables her to cut through complexity and get straight to the heart of what both limits and unlocks human potential across industries, cultures, and geographies.
In addition to her professional achievements, Margie’s insights are grounded in a deeply personal journey of resilience. She has raised four children while relocating across multiple continents, experiences that gave her first-hand insight into the pressures of leading through constant change. Margie has also faced profound personal trials—including surviving an armed robbery and navigating family tragedy—that tested her resolve and strengthened her belief in the human spirit. These challenges fuel her conviction that life’s greatest adversities can be transformed into catalysts for growth. They deepen her perspective on human behavior, leadership, and courage, and inform her work in cultivating “post-traumatic growth” and guiding others to higher ground amid uncertain and difficult times. Her authentic style enables her to connect deeply with audiences at all levels, blending data-driven insights with memorable storytelling that leads to lasting behavioral shifts that move the needle.
Based just outside Washington, DC, Margie embodies the courage she champions in others—from climbing Kilimanjaro with her four children to crossing the Sahara to, most recently, running her first New York marathon. For an unforgettable keynote that emboldens people to take the bold action these times demand – Margie delivers.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Lead Bravely: CLOSE THE COURAGE GAP TO AMPLIFY IMPACT – FROM THE INSIDE OUT
In times of relentless change and rising complexity, hesitation is costly. It’s not enough for leaders to know what to do—they must become the kind of leaders who can do it. That requires more than strategy. It requires courage—turning fear into fuel for transformative growth across teams and culture. Starting with the hardest person we ever have to lead—ourselves.
In this high-impact keynote, Dr. Margie Warrell delivers a bold recalibration of what’s possible when clarity, courage, and conviction converge. Margie unpacks why the real work of leadership begins where comfort zones end, bridging the gap between inner evolution and outer results. With compelling stories and evidence-based insight, she guides leaders to dismantle the psychological barriers—fear of judgment, risk-aversion, imposter beliefs—that subtly sabotage execution, stall growth, and silence candor.
This keynote equips leaders to stop operating from insecurity and start leading from conviction—resetting their trajectory for next-level growth and sustained impact. While many leadership speakers focus on change, innovation, or growth, Dr. Margie Warrell goes deeper—unpacking the human fears and mindset patterns that quietly undermine all three.
Drawing on decades of global experience—including as Senior Partner in C-Suite Advisory at Korn Ferry—she equips leaders to embed courage into how they show up, communicate, build trust and lead change. Whether working with Fortune 500 executives, YPO forums, or Special Operations teams, Margie provides the real-world frameworks that turn bold ideas into bolder results.
This keynote delivers more than inspiration—it’s a reset. A proven path for turning insight into action, fear into fuel, and potential into performance. This keynote is ideal for executive teams, senior and mid-level leaders, high-potential programs, and innovation-driven organizations navigating growth, disruption, or transformation. It can be adapted into interactive workshops or multi-day deep dives.
Key audience takeaways:
- The case for courage: Understand how fear-based leadership exacts a “timidity tax” and long-term vulnerability—and how scaling courage unlocks stronger performance and sustained advantage.
- Lead from values, not emotions: Learn how inner alignment drives outer effectiveness, shifting from insecurity alleviation to purpose-powered action.
- From groupthink to generative thinking: Foster ‘loyal dissent’ and bold thinking that breaks from convention to fuel innovation and resilience.
- Galvanize shared purpose: Craft and communicate a compelling “why” to ignite accountability, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.
- Scale a culture of courage: Apply four principles that build psychological safety, reduce perceived risk, and create the conditions for bold, aligned action at scale.
Take the Chance: Transform Fear into Connection, Confidence and Change
We often know what to do—but fear keeps us from doing it.
Fear of failure, fallout, or making the wrong call. In times of rapid change and uncertainty, it’s easy to rationalise caution. Yet it is precisely when the instinct to play it safe is loudest that we must widen how we frame risk and strengthen our capacity to step forward anyway. To brave the awkward moment. To make the call amid uncertainty. To drive change with no clear roadmap. Because every delay carries an invisible but very real timidity tax—missed opportunity, weaker trust, shallow connection, and stalled growth that ultimately leave us less secure, not more.
In this keynote, Dr. Margie Warrell—author of The Courage Gap and global leadership advisor—draws on three decades of experience empowering people around the world to teach how to practice courage when it counts.
In a world where over 85% of people cite fear of failure as their number one barrier to action, Margie bridges head and heart to show how to transform fear into deeper connection, better decisions, and meaningful change—so people can grow through uncertainty rather than retreat from it. This message resonates equally with leaders, teams, and individuals navigating change, pressure, and personal uncertainty.
Audiences will come away learning how to:
- Flip fear – Turn discomfort and hesitation into useful data and signals for when to speak up, step forward, and lead from values—not emotion.
- Rescript limiting narratives – Use practical language tools to turn setbacks and derailed plans into “plot twists” that strengthen self-belief, agency, and momentum.
- Take smart risks – Apply a simple decision lens to choose courage wisely, reduce over-caution, and move forward with clarity when the path isn’t obvious.
- Build everyday resilience – Apply simple, evidence-based micro-habits that sustain energy, speed recovery from setbacks, and protect against burnout.
- Create real connection – Learn to brave the awkward moments that are the birthplace of meaningful connection, deepening trust, fostering belonging, and unlocking collective courage grounded in genuine psychological safety.
