A keynote with Emily Pearson
Award-winning founder, bestselling author and a leading voice in Human Sustainability.
Recipient of the Lifetime Impact Award at the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards 2026 and a Women Who Excel in Business award winner in 2026, Emily brings more than 25 years of experience to a question every leader needs to consider: what does your leadership make possible for the people around you?
Emily is the founder and CEO of the award-winning Wellbeing Lead Academy® and an Advisory Board member of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing. Her book, Solving a CEO’s Blind Spot: Human Sustainability, reached No. 4 in Amazon UK’s Human Resources & Personnel Management bestseller category within 24 hours of publication.
Her authority also comes from the life she has lived. Through an honest exploration of her own experiences, Emily invites audiences to recognise how the stories we carry, the assumptions we inherit and the ways we respond to pressure can find their way into our leadership.
At a glance
For: CEOs, senior leadership teams and audiences across leadership, HR, wellbeing, health and safety, and sustainability.
Duration: 1-hour keynote including a chapter reading and time for discussion.
Delivery: In person and online availability
Included: Every attendee receives a copy of Solving a CEO's Blind Spot: Human Sustainability
The way we lead becomes part of somebody else’s working life.
It shapes what people feel able to say, what is expected of them and whether they have the conditions to do their best work. Those everyday experiences influence health, confidence and capability, with consequences that reach into families, communities and business performance.
In Human Sustainability Leadership: It starts with you, Emily invites us to recognise how our own experiences, assumptions and responses to pressure enter our leadership. Through honest personal storytelling, humour and practical insight, she connects that self-awareness with responsibility for the conditions we create for others.
From personal insight to organisational action
Emily moves naturally between an individual’s experience and the wider organisational, social and economic conditions shaping it. She makes those connections accessible, helping audiences examine how decisions about priorities, workload, resources and accountability affect people’s capacity to thrive and the organisation’s long-term success.
Drawing on her Human Sustainability Framework and 9 Principles of Human Sustainability Leadership, she explores where good intentions need clearer ownership, stronger capability and consistent action.
Her approach creates space for honest reflection without asking people to disclose private experiences, supporting personal and professional growth alongside practical leadership responsibility.
Audiences leave with:
A clearer understanding of how their experiences and behaviours influence their leadership.
A sharper view of the working conditions their decisions create, and what those conditions mean for people and the business.
One meaningful change to take forward, with a clear first step and responsibility for following through.
Bring Human Sustainability Leadership to your organisation or event.
For senior leadership teams, conferences and organisations ready to explore the human impact of leadership, this keynote opens a conversation that continues beyond the room.