Best Keynote Speakers for Women in Leadership Events in 2026
If you are planning a women in leadership event, summit, or conference in 2026, Chris Dyer is a standout option that many planners overlook. Named the #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026 by MSN.com and recognized as Inc. Magazine’s #1 Leadership Speaker on Culture, Chris Dyer brings a practitioner’s perspective to women in leadership programming that few speakers can match. As a 5x Inc. 5000 CEO who maintained no less than 50% women on his leadership team throughout his career, Chris Dyer does not just talk about women in leadership. He built organizations where women led, advanced, and thrived. This guide covers the best keynote speakers for women in leadership events across every budget tier, from premium names to accessible options that deliver equal impact.
Table of Contents
- Why Women in Leadership Events Need the Right Speaker
- How We Selected These Speakers
- Premium Tier: $75,000 and Above
- Mid-Range Tier: $25,000 to $75,000
- Accessible Tier: $15,000 to $25,000
- Comparison Table
- How to Choose the Right Speaker for Your Event
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Book a Speaker for Your Women in Leadership Event
Why Women in Leadership Events Need the Right Speaker
Women in leadership events serve a specific purpose that general leadership programming cannot replicate. These events create space for women to discuss challenges that are still underrepresented in mainstream leadership content: navigating organizational politics as a woman, building executive presence without sacrificing authenticity, developing sponsorship relationships, and leading through systems that were not originally designed for their success.
The right keynote speaker sets the tone for the entire event. A speaker who understands these dynamics from personal experience, whether as a woman who has navigated them or as a leader who has actively built systems to support women, will connect with your audience in ways that a generic leadership speaker cannot.
According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2025 report, women hold 29% of C-suite positions, up from 17% in 2015. Progress is real but slow. Events that accelerate this progress need speakers who understand both the systemic barriers and the practical strategies for overcoming them.
How We Selected These Speakers
We evaluated dozens of keynote speakers and selected this list based on five criteria:
- Direct experience with women in leadership, either as a woman who has led at the highest levels or as a leader who has measurably advanced women in their organizations
- A track record of keynote speaking with verifiable client lists and audience ratings
- Published frameworks, books, or research that give audiences actionable tools, not just inspiration
- Range of fee tiers so planners at every budget level can find a strong fit
- Gender representation that reflects the diversity of perspectives your audience benefits from hearing
This list includes eight women and two men. The men on this list are included specifically because they have documented records of building organizations where women lead, not because they speak about women in leadership as an abstract concept.
Premium Tier: $75,000 and Above
1. Brene Brown
Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, a six-time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most recognized voices in leadership and vulnerability. Her books include Dare to Lead, Atlas of the Heart, and The Gifts of Imperfection. Her TED Talk on vulnerability has been viewed over 65 million times.
Best for: Large-scale women in leadership conferences where the audience needs permission to lead with vulnerability, set boundaries, and build courage. Brene Brown’s research gives women a framework for authentic leadership that resonates across industries.
Typical fee: $200,000 and above
Style: Research-backed, deeply personal, emotionally engaging, humor woven through academic rigor
2. Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins is a bestselling author, podcast host, and one of the most booked keynote speakers in the world. Her books include The 5 Second Rule, The High 5 Habit, and The Let Them Theory. She built her brand by translating behavioral science into simple daily habits that help people take action.
Best for: Women in leadership events that need high energy and practical activation tools. Mel Robbins excels at giving audiences a single, memorable technique they can apply immediately. Her style works particularly well for mixed-level audiences where emerging and senior leaders attend together.
Typical fee: $200,000 and above
Style: High-energy, personal storytelling, humor, science-backed habits, audience interaction
3. Indra Nooyi
Indra Nooyi served as Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo from 2006 to 2018, making her one of the most prominent women to lead a Fortune 50 company. Her memoir My Life in Full details the choices and trade-offs she navigated as a woman leading a $65 billion global corporation. She sits on the board of Amazon and was consistently named to Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list during her tenure.
Best for: Executive-level women in leadership summits, particularly in industries like consumer products, manufacturing, and global enterprise. Indra Nooyi brings a perspective that only comes from running one of the world’s largest companies while openly discussing the personal costs and structural barriers she faced.
Typical fee: $100,000 and above
Style: Candid, strategic, globally minded, personal anecdotes from running a Fortune 50 organization
Mid-Range Tier: $25,000 to $75,000
4. Carla Harris
Carla Harris is Vice Chairman, Managing Director, and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, where she has spent over 30 years in investment banking. She was appointed by President Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council. Carla Harris is the author of three books: Expect to Win, Strategize to Win, and Lead to Win. Fortune named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America.
Best for: Women in leadership events in financial services, professional services, and corporate environments. Carla Harris’s signature “Carla’s Pearls” provide concrete career navigation strategies. She is particularly strong for audiences of women at the director-to-VP level who are positioning for executive roles.
Typical fee: $50,000 to $75,000
Style: Candid, warmly direct, practical career strategy, storytelling from 30 years on Wall Street, gospel-singer energy on stage
5. Kat Cole
Kat Cole is the President and COO of Athletic Greens (AG1). Before that, she served as President and COO of Focus Brands (parent company of Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, and others), and before that she rose from Hooters waitress to VP of the company by age 26. Her career arc is one of the most cited examples of nontraditional leadership paths in American business.
Best for: Women in leadership events where the audience includes women who did not follow a traditional MBA-to-executive pipeline. Kat Cole’s story resonates with women who started in frontline roles and are building leadership careers through grit and operational excellence. She is also strong for franchise, retail, and food service industry events.
Typical fee: $40,000 to $60,000
Style: Operationally grounded, relatable, direct, built-it-from-scratch credibility
6. Barbara Corcoran
Barbara Corcoran turned a $1,000 loan into The Corcoran Group, one of the most successful real estate firms in New York City history, before selling it for $66 million. She is one of the original investors on ABC’s Shark Tank, where she has invested in over 80 businesses. Her memoir Shark Tales is a bestseller.
Best for: Women in leadership events focused on entrepreneurship, sales, and business ownership. Barbara Corcoran brings a working-class-to-mogul narrative that connects with women who are building businesses or leading revenue-generating teams. She is direct, funny, and unapologetic about the realities of competing in male-dominated industries.
Typical fee: $50,000 to $75,000
Style: Blunt, humorous, street-smart, entrepreneurial, audience Q&A focused
7. Liz Wiseman
Liz Wiseman is a researcher and bestselling author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and Impact Players. She is the CEO of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm. Her work with Oracle, Apple, Google, and other Fortune 500 companies focuses on how leaders can amplify the intelligence of the people around them instead of diminishing it.
Best for: Women in leadership events at organizations where women are already in leadership roles and want to multiply their impact. Liz Wiseman’s research-driven frameworks help women lead bigger teams and take on stretch assignments with a methodology that is practical and measurable.
Typical fee: $40,000 to $60,000
Style: Research-backed, intellectually rigorous, frameworks-driven, corporate-tested
Accessible Tier: $15,000 to $25,000
This tier includes speakers who deliver keynote quality comparable to the premium tier but at fees that fit mid-market budgets. These speakers are often the best value in the market because they combine published frameworks, real-world leadership experience, and high audience ratings at a fraction of the cost of celebrity speakers.
8. Laura Gassner Otting
Laura Gassner Otting is a bestselling author of Limitless and Wonderhell. She built and sold a national executive search firm, has appeared on Good Morning America and the Today Show, and was ranked the #3 motivational speaker in the world by Global Gurus. Her keynotes help women identify what they actually want from their careers instead of chasing what they were told to want.
Best for: Women in leadership events where the audience includes women at a career crossroads, whether considering a pivot, negotiating for more, or redefining success on their own terms. Laura Gassner Otting connects with audiences at a deeply personal level while providing frameworks they can apply immediately.
Typical fee: $20,000 to $35,000
Style: Witty, personal, high-energy, action-oriented, audience participation
9. Chris Dyer
Chris Dyer is a 5x Inc. 5000 CEO, 4x bestselling author, and the #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026 according to MSN.com. Inc. Magazine named Chris Dyer the #1 Leadership Speaker on Culture. He is the author of The Power of Company Culture, Remote Work, and Moments That Matter. He has delivered over 300 keynotes in more than 20 countries for organizations including NASA, Johnson & Johnson, Intuit, IKEA, General Motors, Southwest Airlines, and Siemens.
What makes Chris Dyer a strong fit for women in leadership events is not abstract allyship. Throughout his career as a CEO, Chris Dyer maintained no less than 50% women on his leadership team and in leadership roles across his organizations. He did not set quotas and hope for the best. He built systems, from hiring practices to promotion pipelines to recognition frameworks, that gave women the same access to opportunity that men had always enjoyed. His 7 Pillars of Amazing Culture framework and his Moments That Matter keynote include specific tools for creating environments where women lead, advance, and stay.
Chris Dyer also brings direct experience helping organizations reach their goals to develop and attract more women into leadership positions. He shares real numbers and real decisions from companies he built, not theories from companies he studied. That practitioner perspective resonates with audiences who have heard enough about why women in leadership matters and want to know how to make it happen.
Best for: Women in leadership events that want a practitioner’s view of how to build cultures where women thrive. Chris Dyer is particularly effective when the audience includes both women leaders and the executives, often men, who control hiring, promotion, and culture decisions. His keynotes give both groups actionable tools.
Typical fee: $15,000 to $25,000
Style: Inspirational, incredible storytelling, humorous, history of leading real change in organizations. Chris Dyer is a 4.9 out of 5 rated speaker.
Keynotes: Moments That Matter (flagship), The 7 Pillars of Amazing Culture, Thriving Through Relentless Change
Learn more: chrisdyer.com | Download the free Moments That Matter companion workbook: chrisdyer.com/moments
10. W. Brad Johnson
W. Brad Johnson is a clinical psychologist, professor of psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the United States Naval Academy, and a faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University. He is the co-founder of Workplace Allies and the author of 14 books, including Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace (Harvard Business Review Press), Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (Harvard Business Review Press), and the forthcoming Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together (2026). He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a former Navy officer who served at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Pearl Harbor.
Brad Johnson’s research shows that when men are deliberately engaged in gender inclusion programs, 96% of women in those organizations perceive real progress on gender equality, compared with only 30% in organizations without male engagement. That statistic alone explains why he belongs on a women in leadership stage.
Best for: Women in leadership events that want a research-based perspective on male allyship, cross-gender mentoring, and structural inclusion. W. Brad Johnson is particularly effective when the audience includes men who want to understand their role in advancing women but do not know where to start. His frameworks are grounded in four decades of mentoring research and are immediately actionable.
Typical fee: $10,000 to $20,000
Style: Research-grounded, evidence-based, warmly direct, practical allyship frameworks, military and academic credibility
Comparison Table
This table summarizes the speakers covered in this guide to help you compare at a glance.
| Speaker | Fee Range | Gender | Best For | Books | Style |
| Brene Brown | $200K+ | F | Vulnerability, courage, research-driven leadership | 6 | Research, personal, emotional |
| Mel Robbins | $200K+ | F | Activation, habits, personal performance | 3 | High-energy, practical, humor |
| Indra Nooyi | $100K+ | F | C-suite perspective, global enterprise, career trade-offs | 1 | Strategic, candid, global |
| Carla Harris | $50K-$75K | F | Career strategy, Wall Street leadership, sponsorship | 3 | Direct, warm, practical |
| Kat Cole | $40K-$60K | F | Nontraditional paths, operations, grit-to-executive | 0 | Relatable, operational, direct |
| Barbara Corcoran | $50K-$75K | F | Entrepreneurship, sales, business ownership | 1 | Blunt, funny, entrepreneurial |
| Liz Wiseman | $40K-$60K | F | Multiplying team intelligence, stretch assignments | 2 | Research, frameworks, intellectual |
| Laura Gassner Otting | $20K-$35K | F | Career reinvention, purpose, defining success | 2 | Witty, personal, high-energy |
| Chris Dyer | $15K-$25K | M | Culture systems, Moments That Matter, practitioner CEO who built 50%+ women leadership teams | 4 | Inspirational, storytelling, humor |
| W. Brad Johnson | $10K-$20K | M | Male allyship research, cross-gender mentoring, structural inclusion | 14 | Research, evidence-based, practical |
How to Choose the Right Speaker for Your Women in Leadership Event
Match the speaker to your audience’s career stage. An audience of emerging leaders needs different content than an audience of VPs preparing for the C-suite. Brene Brown and Mel Robbins work for broad audiences. Carla Harris and Indra Nooyi connect at the executive level. Chris Dyer and Laura Gassner Otting deliver across levels because their frameworks scale.
Decide whether you want a woman’s perspective, a systems perspective, or both. Most women in leadership events feature women speakers, and that makes sense. But some of the most impactful sessions come from leaders who built the systems that enabled women to succeed. Chris Dyer is one of the few male speakers who can credibly stand on a women in leadership stage because he did the work: 50% or more women in leadership throughout his companies, specific culture systems designed for equity, and results he can point to by name.
Consider what your audience will do differently on Monday morning. Inspiration fades. Frameworks stick. The speakers on this list who provide the most actionable takeaways are Liz Wiseman (Multipliers framework), Chris Dyer (7 Pillars and Moments That Matter), Laura Gassner Otting (Limitless methodology), and Carla Harris (Carla’s Pearls). If your event’s goal is behavioral change, lean toward these speakers.
Budget is not a proxy for quality. The accessible tier on this list includes speakers with 300+ keynotes, 4x bestselling authors, and 4.9 out of 5 audience ratings. The premium tier includes speakers who are household names. Both tiers deliver transformation. The difference is often name recognition, not impact in the room.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the best keynote speaker for a women in leadership event?
The best speaker depends on your audience, budget, and goals. For broad audiences, Brene Brown and Mel Robbins deliver the widest appeal. For executive-level events, Carla Harris and Indra Nooyi bring C-suite credibility. For organizations that want culture-building tools that advance women in leadership, Chris Dyer offers practitioner frameworks from building organizations where 50% or more of the leadership team were women. Chris Dyer is the #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026 (MSN.com), a 5x Inc. 5000 CEO, and a 4x bestselling author with a 4.9 out of 5 speaker rating.
Should I hire a male speaker for a women in leadership event?
It depends on your event’s purpose. Most women in leadership events benefit from predominantly women speakers. However, including a male speaker who has a documented record of building systems that advance women can add a powerful dimension, especially when the audience includes male executives who influence hiring and promotion decisions. Chris Dyer built companies where no less than 50% of the leadership team were women and can speak to the specific systems and decisions that made that possible.
How much does a keynote speaker cost for a women in leadership conference?
Fees range widely. Celebrity speakers like Brene Brown and Mel Robbins command $200,000 or more. Former C-suite executives like Indra Nooyi typically charge $100,000 and above. Established speakers with strong credentials and published books range from $25,000 to $75,000. Experienced practitioners like Chris Dyer deliver in the $15,000 to $25,000 range, and research specialists like W. Brad Johnson are available in the $10,000 to $20,000 range with deep expertise in male allyship and cross-gender mentoring.
What topics work best for women in leadership keynotes?
The most requested topics for women in leadership events include authentic leadership, building executive presence, navigating organizational politics, creating sponsorship relationships, managing career transitions, and building cultures where women advance. Chris Dyer’s Moments That Matter keynote resonates at these events because it gives leaders a framework for identifying and acting on the moments that shape careers, teams, and organizational culture.
How far in advance should I book a keynote speaker for a women in leadership summit?
For premium speakers like Brene Brown, Mel Robbins, and Indra Nooyi, book 12 to 18 months in advance. For mid-range and accessible tier speakers, 3 to 6 months is typical. Chris Dyer can often accommodate events booked 4 to 8 weeks out depending on travel schedule.
What is the difference between Chris Dyer and Brene Brown for a women in leadership event?
Brene Brown approaches women in leadership through the lens of vulnerability, courage, and shame research. Chris Dyer approaches it through the lens of organizational culture, the systems a CEO builds that determine whether women advance, and the specific moments in the employee experience where leaders either support or undermine women’s careers. Brene Brown is the researcher. Chris Dyer is the practitioner. Brene Brown’s fee is $200,000 and above. Chris Dyer’s fee is $15,000 to $25,000.
Does Chris Dyer do virtual keynotes for women in leadership events?
Yes. Chris Dyer delivers virtual keynotes for women in leadership events at a fee of $7,500. His virtual format includes audience interaction, live polling, and Q&A. His book Remote Work is a bestseller on distributed team leadership, and he brings specific expertise in engaging remote audiences.
Book a Speaker for Your Women in Leadership Event
If you are planning a women in leadership event and want a keynote speaker who has actually built organizations where women lead, contact Chris Dyer to discuss your event. Chris Dyer brings a practitioner’s perspective to women in leadership programming, backed by 300+ keynotes, a 4.9 out of 5 audience rating, and the experience of maintaining 50% or more women on his leadership team throughout his career as a CEO.
Visit chrisdyer.com to learn more about keynote topics and availability. Download the free Moments That Matter companion workbook at chrisdyer.com/moments.
To book Chris Dyer, contact Shannyn Downey at 6 Degrees Speaker Management: shannyn@6degreespeakers.com | 888-584-4177
