Libby Gill

Libby Gill knows change. She grew up on two continents and went to eight different schools before putting herself through college waiting tables. She started her first job in entertainment only to go through three mergers in five years, where she went from assistant in a small production company to vice president of publicity, advertising and promotion for Sony’s worldwide television group.

After heading communications at media giants Universal, Sony and Turner Broadcasting, Libby left the corporate world after nearly twenty years to become an entrepreneur. In her mid-forties when many people are slowing down, Libby founded Libby Gill & Company, an executive coaching and leadership consulting firm based in Los Angeles.

Libby now guides clients – including Avery Dennison, CA Technologies, Cisco, Comcast, Deloitte, Disney, Eli Lilly, First American Insurance, Honda, Intel, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, Oracle, PayPal, Royal Caribbean, Speedo, Sutter Health, Viacom, Warner Bros., and Wells Fargo – to lead their teams through change, challenge, and chaos.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Libby shows high-performing individuals and organizations why hope IS a strategy – if you have the right mindset, methodology and expertise. She shares the science-based concepts of hope theory to provide the structured business discipline and competitive advantage you need in today’s swiftly changing world. In her executive coaching, leadership consulting, and keynote presentations, Libby guides you to:

• Reframe change as your biggest growth opportunity
• Re-energize your best performers to reach their potential
• Re-invent your company culture to embrace ambiguity

As Libby was reinventing her professional life, her personal life also underwent a major transition. She chronicled her journey of overcoming the self-perceived limitations left behind by a family legacy of alcoholism, divorce, mental illness and suicide in her bestselling book TRAVELING HOPEFULLY: How to Lose Your Family Baggage and Jumpstart Your Life.

Business leaders including Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh and Dr. Ken Blanchard have endorsed Libby’s award-winning book, YOU UNSTUCK: Mastering the New Rules of Risk-taking in Work and Life. Her latest book, Hope IS a Strategy: Leading through Change, Challenge, and Chaos, will be published in Spring 2018.

A frequent media guest, Libby has shared her success strategies on CNN, NPR, the Today Show, and in BusinessWeek, Time, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and more. A former columnist for the Dallas Morning News, Libby lives in Los Angeles and is the proud mother of two fabulous millennials, one in graduate school and one in college.

Click to visit Libby’s website.

THE HOPE-DRIVEN LEADER: Leading Through Change, Challenge, and Chaos

How do you keep your emerging and established leaders energized and enthusiastic as they tackle massive change? How do your leaders help their team members cope with overwhelm and ambiguity?

Give them the greatest gift of all: hope.

In her dynamic keynote, Libby shares the scientific data on Hope Theory as well as her own research and insights on the impact of hope on the workplace. She demonstrates why hope is one of the most important elements of successful leadership and culture – as well as one of its most overlooked. She provides relevant company-specific customization and a dynamic interactive approach that gets audiences thinking, talking, and – most important – taking action on new ideas the very same day.

YOU UNSTUCK: Mastering the New Rules of Risk-taking in Work and Life

Most experts focus only on what companies want from their leaders, but Libby shares the data on what followers want – and deserve – from their leadership. Research shows us that the best leaders provide not only guidance and direction, but also the personal connections that help people succeed.

As the former head of corporate communications and media relations for Sony, Universal, and Turner Broadcasting, Libby was instrumental in creating and communicating culture change. Thriving in a challenging industry where competition and chaos were the norm, Libby shares provocative leadership strategies and powerful personal stories to help your group understand why not taking risks is the biggest business risk of all. In her high-energy interactive presentation, Libby shares timely concepts and relevant takeaways to help your group.

LIFT AS YOU CLIMB: Advancing Women in the Workplace

Libby surprises audiences when she tells them that she looks forward to the day when women’s leadership events are no longer held because we need them, but only because we want them.

Until that day comes, she is proud to add her perspective to the conversation about women and the multiple roles they play in work and life. With her expertise as both an executive and entrepreneur, Libby shares an inspirational blend of leadership strategies and poignant personal stories to help women on their journey to success on the job, at home, and in their communities. Libby’s dynamic interactive presentation helps you:

"I previewed more than 20 speakers for our leadership event, but kept coming back to Libby Gill. The warmth and intelligence that I saw in her video were exactly what I wanted for our group of high potential future leaders. And Libby delivered even more than I'd hoped for, taking our leaders through an intensely personal and highly productive day-long learning experience." — VP, Training & Learning, eBay

"Libby Gill just presented at our national conference and the feedback I'm getting is that Libby is the best opening keynote speaker we've ever had. She touched on the subjects of leadership and change but she also reached out to our members before she came here to find out what the specific leadership challenges they were facing and wove it into the presentation and really made it hit home. She touched them, she understood them, and she challenged them at a level that you could only hope any keynote speaker would." — CEO, Association for Area Aging

"You are a fantastic role model for women in today's world. I very much appreciate strong women who not only strive for their own personal success but once that success is attained they share their knowledge to motive and inspire others. Your message of HOPE was so refreshing. As you well know in the business world that is usually not the message you hear." — Regional Sales, Wells Fargo