Joseph Stiglitz
2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics | University Professor, Columbia | Chief Economist, Roosevelt Institute | Former Chief Economist, World Bank
Lucy Adams
Founder & CEO, Disruptive HR | Former HR Director, BBC | Bestselling Author of HR Disrupted | Creator of the EACH Framework | People Leadership Expert
Lucy Adams spent five years as HR Director at the BBC, cutting management costs by over £25m a year while steering a 20,000-strong workforce through crisis. As founder and CEO of Disruptive HR, she now equips CHROs and business leaders with the frameworks, including her acclaimed EACH model, to build people practices fit for the modern world. Audiences leave with candid challenge and tools they can use on Monday.
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Lucy Adams biography
Speaker Lucy Adams is one of the most distinctive and practical voices among HR speakers and across the global conversation about the future of people leadership. As founder and CEO of Disruptive HR, the agency she built to challenge outdated people practices, she has spent more than a decade advising HR leaders and C-suite executives at some of the world’s most recognized brands, including HSBC, Siemens, Accenture, Deloitte, BT, and Nestlé. Her work rests on a simple but radical premise: most HR practices were designed for a 20th-century world and are no longer fit for purpose.
Adams built her credentials at the sharp end of organizational life. As Director of HR at the BBC, the world’s largest public broadcaster, she navigated one of the most publicly scrutinized leadership environments imaginable. Over five years she served four Directors General, oversaw a major relocation to Salford, managed the fallout from several high-profile crises, and cut management layers by more than 30%, saving over £25 million a year, all while modernizing HR policy for a workforce of more than 20,000. Earlier senior roles at Serco and Eversheds built her reputation for leading people functions through complex, high-stakes change. That frontline experience underpins her EACH framework, which treats Employees as Adults, Consumers, and Human beings and has become a reference point for progressive HR teams worldwide.
From Practitioner to Global Thought Leader
Adams turned her thinking into two bestselling books, HR Disrupted, now in an updated edition, and The HR Change Toolkit, a practical guide to people-strategy transformation. She co-hosts the fortnightly HR Disrupted podcast, one of the most followed HR leadership shows in the UK, and through the Disruptive HR Club reaches thousands of practitioners every month. Her six-month CPO Programme, co-led with co-founder Karen Moran, has become a destination for senior people leaders who want to lead with greater confidence and strategic impact.
As a speaker, Lucy Adams brings something rare to the stage: she has lived the pressures HR and business leaders face, and she has the frameworks, and the wit, to turn that experience into something immediately useful. Audiences at Deloitte, the Australian HR Institute, BT, and Accenture describe her sessions as energizing, provocative, and distinctly practical. For organizations grappling with talent retention, leadership culture, the impact of AI on people practices, or the move to genuinely human-centered workplaces, she makes the case and shows the way.
Lucy Adams Speaking Videos
Lucy Adams - Reinventing HR
Lucy Adams - HR in a disrupted world
Lucy Adams Keynote Topics
The way most organizations run HR was built for a world that no longer exists. Lucy Adams makes the evidence-based case that practices from annual appraisals to one-size-fits-all engagement surveys are not just ineffective but counterproductive. Drawing on her BBC years, a decade of consulting, and her EACH framework, she offers an alternative grounded in trust, personalization, and treating people as adults. Audiences leave knowing what to stop, what to start, and how to build the internal case for change.
What does strong leadership look like when the rules keep shifting, teams are dispersed, and the pressure never lets up? Lucy Adams draws on her experience inside some of the most publicly turbulent organizations of recent decades to give a grounded, honest answer. She moves past platitudes about resilience to what leaders must actually do differently: communicate under pressure, build trust when certainty is scarce, and keep people engaged when the environment is anything but stable. Especially powerful for leadership teams and organizations in the middle of major change.
As AI reshapes roles, automates processes, and changes the nature of work itself, the pressure on people leaders has never been higher, or the opportunity greater. Lucy Adams explores what accelerating AI means for talent strategy, culture, and employee experience. She challenges the belief that technology alone solves workforce problems and argues that the winners will double down on what makes people irreplaceable: judgment, trust, creativity, and connection. A sharp, practical session for leadership and HR audiences working at the intersection of AI and people.
One of the most persistent frustrations in HR is the gap between the function's potential and its real influence in the boardroom. Having sat at that table at the BBC and advised CPOs across dozens of organizations, Lucy Adams tackles it head-on. She explores why HR often struggles to be taken seriously as a strategic partner, what it takes to change that, and how people leaders can build the commercial credibility, analytical rigor, and personal authority to shape decisions rather than simply deliver them. A candid, highly practical session for senior HR audiences.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Lucy Adams
Why Lucy Adams?
Lucy Adams is not a theorist who studied HR from the outside; she led people functions inside some of the world's most complex organizations, including the BBC through one of the most turbulent periods in its history. That credibility is felt the moment she takes the stage. She pairs the authority of a seasoned practitioner with the clarity of a genuine thought leader: her EACH framework, her books, and her Disruptive HR agency have shaped how thousands of HR leaders worldwide think about talent, engagement, and culture. What sets her apart is her refusal to trade in buzzwords, she gives audiences concrete models, honest challenge, and tools they can use the next Monday. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check availability and book Lucy Adams for your next event.
What is Lucy Adams's EACH framework?
EACH stands for Employees as Adults, Consumers, and Human beings, a model Lucy Adams developed with Disruptive HR to help organizations rethink how they design people practices. "Adults" means trusting employees with information and autonomy instead of managing them paternalistically. "Consumers" means recognizing that people have different needs and preferences, like customers, and designing HR accordingly. "Human beings" means accepting that people bring their whole selves to work and cannot be reduced to performance metrics. EACH has become one of the most widely adopted frameworks in progressive HR and anchors Adams's keynotes, books, and consulting.
What does HR speaker Lucy Adams cover in her keynotes?
Lucy Adams's keynotes address the biggest challenges in modern people leadership: why traditional HR is no longer fit for purpose and what to replace it with, how to lead and engage people through constant change, the EACH framework for redesigning people practices, how HR builds credibility and influence at board level, and people strategy in the age of AI and hybrid work. Sessions suit both HR audiences and broader C-suite and leadership conferences. To shape a talk around your event and audience, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
What is the Disruptive HR Club?
The Disruptive HR Club is an online membership community and training platform co-founded by Lucy Adams and Karen Moran through their agency, Disruptive HR. It gives HR professionals and people leaders practical tools, frameworks, case studies, and learning resources to modernize how they work. The Club serves thousands of members globally with fresh content, community discussion, and live events. Alongside the six-month CPO Programme and the HR Disrupted podcast, it is one of the main ways Adams continues to shape the global HR conversation between keynotes.
How to book Lucy Adams as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Lucy Adams as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Lucy Adams's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Lucy Adams or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Lucy Adams speaking fee?
Lucy Adams speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Lucy Adams to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Lucy Adams.
How can I contact Lucy Adams?
We only work with Lucy Adams on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Lucy Adams and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Lucy Adams speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Lucy Adams for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Lucy Adams for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Lucy Adams is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Lucy Adams for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
