Gerd Leonhard
World-Renowned Futurist & Humanist | CEO, The Futures Agency | Bestselling Author of Technology vs. Humanity | Filmmaker | Voice of "The Good Future"
Margaret Heffernan
Thinkers50 Hall of Fame | Five-Time CEO & Seven-Time Author | Professor of Practice, University of Bath | 15M+ TED Views
Inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, Margaret Heffernan is a five-time CEO, seven-time author, and one of the world's leading voices on leadership, uncertainty, and organizational culture. Her TED talks have surpassed 15 million views, and her books, from Willful Blindness to Embracing Uncertainty, have reshaped how leaders think about risk, collaboration, and creativity. She leaves audiences with sharper questions and a different way of seeing.
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Margaret Heffernan biography
Business speaker Margaret Heffernan is one of the most distinctive voices in global business, a former BBC producer and five-time chief executive whose books, TED talks, and keynotes have reshaped how leaders think about uncertainty, collaboration, risk, and the nature of work itself. Born in Texas, raised in the Netherlands, and educated at Cambridge, she built her early career at the BBC, where she spent thirteen years producing radio and television documentaries and dramas, including work for Timewatch, Arena, and Newsnight, plus a landmark thirteen-part series on the French Revolution for the BBC and A&E. She was among the producers of the prize-winning series Out of the Doll’s House, a history of women across the twentieth century.
Heffernan then moved to the United States, where she led a series of technology companies as chief executive, among them InfoMation, ZineZone, and iCast, earning recognition as one of the Top 25 by Streaming Media and one of the Top 100 Media Executives by The Hollywood Reporter. Running organizations under real pressure gave her research and writing a grounding in operational reality that purely academic thinkers rarely reach. Her TED talks have been viewed by more than fifteen million people, and in 2023 she was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, the most prestigious recognition in global management thinking, for the sustained impact of her work across two decades.
Seven Books, One Consistent Argument
Heffernan is the author of seven books, each examining a different dimension of how organizations and individuals succeed, or fail, under modern pressure. Willful Blindness (2011), named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times, exposed the organizational and psychological mechanisms that let people and institutions ignore the obvious, with case studies running from the banking crisis to Deepwater Horizon to Wells Fargo. A Bigger Prize won the 2015 Transmission Prize and challenged the dominance of competitive thinking with the evidence for collaboration. Uncharted (2020), a bestseller shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book award and named one of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2021, argued that when the best forecasters can see only 400 days ahead, the capacity to experiment and adapt matters far more than the capacity to plan. Her most recent book, Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians and Artists Thrive in an Unpredictable World (2025), draws on the arts to argue that creativity, resilience, and agency, not prediction and control, are the defining organizational capabilities of our time, earning praise from Adam Grant and Daniel Pink. She is currently Professor of Practice at the University of Bath and mentors CEOs and senior executives worldwide through Merryck & Co.
As a speaker, Margaret Heffernan is consistently among the most requested and most memorable voices on any conference program. Her keynotes are not about comfort but about clarity: clearing away the myths, habits, and cultural assumptions that keep organizations from seeing what sits in front of them and acting on it with courage. Senior audiences leave with new frameworks, sharper questions, and a real shift in how they see the challenges they face.
Margaret Heffernan Speaking Videos
Margaret Heffernan - Why it's time to forget the pecking order at work
Margaret Heffernan - The human skills we need in an unpredictable world
Margaret Heffernan Keynote Topics
Most organizational disasters are not caused by unknowable events. They are caused by information that was available, could have been acted on, and was not. Drawing on her landmark book and extensive research into cases including the banking crisis, Deepwater Horizon, Boeing, and Wells Fargo, Heffernan examines the cognitive, social, and cultural forces that lead individuals and institutions to ignore what sits in plain view. The keynote is equal parts diagnosis and prescription, helping audiences recognize the conditions that breed willful blindness in their own organizations and equipping them with the habits and cultures that make seeing clearer, earlier, and braver.
Based on her 2025 book, Heffernan makes a powerful and counterintuitive case: at a moment when organizations desperately need creativity, initiative, and adaptation, they keep investing in certainty, and it is making matters worse. The people who handle uncertainty with the most skill, stamina, and agency are not managers or technologists but artists. This keynote draws on the working lives of writers, musicians, and visual artists to offer a fresh model for organizational resilience, one built on curiosity, iteration, and the courage to act without a guaranteed outcome. Essential for any senior audience facing disruption without a reliable map.
The standard model of organizational success, hire the best, pit them against each other, reward the winner, turns out to be one of the most reliably destructive forces in organizational life. Drawing on her Transmission Prize-winning book and a wide range of research from neuroscience, sports science, and business, Heffernan makes the evidence-based case for why collaboration consistently outperforms competition, and what it actually takes to build teams and cultures where diverse minds work together over the long term. Not a feel-good talk about teamwork, but a rigorous look at why competition destroys the very thing most organizations need most.
In an era when expert forecasters cannot reliably see beyond 400 days, the ability to plan is far less valuable than the ability to experiment, adapt, and learn. Drawn from her Financial Times-nominated bestseller, this keynote examines why our addiction to forecasting, planning, and optimization leaves organizations dangerously brittle, and what genuinely adaptive organizations do differently. Audiences gain a practical framework for building organizations able to navigate what cannot be foreseen, not by predicting the future but by developing the capabilities to meet it on any terms.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Margaret Heffernan
Why Margaret Heffernan?
Booking Margaret Heffernan means bringing to your stage one of the most intellectually rigorous and commercially experienced business thinkers alive today. As a five-time chief executive, a former BBC producer, the author of seven books, a Thinkers50 Hall of Fame inductee, and a TED speaker with more than fifteen million views, Heffernan has not just studied organizational challenges, she has lived them. What makes her exceptional on stage is the mix of forensic research and the plain-spoken courage to tell audiences what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. Whether the subject is willful blindness, the limits of competition, navigating an unpredictable future, or what organizations can learn from artists about thriving under uncertainty, her keynotes leave audiences genuinely changed in how they think. For events where leadership, culture, the future of work, or strategic decision-making are on the agenda, few speakers deliver the same depth, relevance, and lasting impact. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to discuss availability.
What is Willful Blindness?
Willful blindness is a legal and organizational concept at the heart of one of Margaret Heffernan's most celebrated books. In law, willful blindness describes a situation where someone had the opportunity to acquire knowledge but chose, consciously or not, to avoid it. In her book Willful Blindness, named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times, Heffernan examines why individuals, teams, and entire organizations systematically ignore information they could and should have acted on, not because they lack intelligence, but because of the psychological, social, and cultural forces that make not-knowing feel safer than knowing. Her examples span the banking crisis, Deepwater Horizon, Boeing, VW, and Wells Fargo. Her central argument is that most catastrophic organizational failures are caused not by unknowable events but by known information that was never acted on.
What is Margaret Heffernan's most recent book?
Margaret Heffernan's most recent book is Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians and Artists Thrive in an Unpredictable World, published in 2025. Building on the themes of Uncharted, it argues that at a time when technology promises ever-greater certainty and control, organizations and individuals are becoming more passive, more anxious, and less capable of the creativity and adaptation they urgently need. Her answer is to look to the world of artists, writers, musicians, and visual artists, who live with radical uncertainty as a permanent condition and thrive precisely because of it rather than despite it. The book has drawn praise from Adam Grant and Daniel Pink and was featured by the Financial Times in its coverage of the role of art in difficult times.
What topics does business speaker Margaret Heffernan cover?
As one of the world's most sought-after business speakers, Margaret Heffernan covers willful blindness and why organizations ignore critical information, the case for collaboration over competition, navigating uncertainty and unpredictable futures, the future of work and what truly adaptive organizations look like, creativity and what leaders can learn from the arts, and the cultural and psychological dynamics that determine whether teams perform or stagnate. Her keynotes suit leadership conferences, strategy offsites, corporate culture events, and senior executive forums across any sector. Aurum Speakers Bureau can help tailor her engagement to your specific audience and objectives, so reach out to discuss availability and format.
How to book Margaret Heffernan as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Margaret Heffernan as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Margaret Heffernan'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 Margaret Heffernan or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Margaret Heffernan speaking fee?
Margaret Heffernan 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 Margaret Heffernan 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 Margaret Heffernan.
How can I contact Margaret Heffernan?
We only work with Margaret Heffernan on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Margaret Heffernan and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Margaret Heffernan 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 Margaret Heffernan for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Margaret Heffernan for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Margaret Heffernan is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Margaret Heffernan for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
