Blaire Palmer

Leading through disruption requires more than recycled wisdom; it demands fresh thinking that connects strategy with the realities leaders face today. Blaire Palmer is a transformation specialist and keynote speaker with over 25 years at the sharp end of leadership and cultural change, working with boards and senior teams navigating growth, disruption and shifting workforce expectations. Author of four books, including "Punks in Suits: How to Lead the Workplace Reformation" (2024), she brings commercially grounded insights from designing bespoke leadership programmes for organisations scaling, integrating acquisitions, or transforming in response to industry change. Her provocative keynotes deliver practical shifts in how leaders build trust, make decisions under pressure, and engage teams whose needs have fundamentally changed, leaving audiences with clarity, language and actionable insight that sticks.

Leaders today face an unprecedented challenge: they need more than compliance from their teams. They need genuine investment, full engagement, and a sense of shared purpose at a time when workforces are dispersed, expectations have shifted dramatically, and the old playbook no longer delivers results. Blaire Palmer is a keynote speaker, author, and transformation specialist who helps organisations navigate this reality by challenging conventional thinking around leadership and work. For more than 25 years, she has been at the sharp end of leadership and cultural transformation, working with senior leaders to shift what actually changes behaviour inside organisations: how decisions get made, how leaders lead under pressure, and how culture either accelerates strategy or quietly constrains it.

Blaire's career began as one of the youngest female producers on the BBC's flagship Today programme, where she spent a decade breaking stories and shaping the UK news agenda. Her fascination with leadership led her to train as one of Europe's first corporate coaches, and she has since founded her own company, That People Thing, designing and delivering leadership and culture programmes for organisations scaling into new markets, integrating acquisitions, or transforming in response to industry change. Her client list includes Mattel, Airbus, Roche, GSK, the FA, Havas Lynx, Travis Perkins, and the BBC. Blaire is also the author of four books on leadership and work, including her latest, Punks in Suits: How to Lead the Workplace Reformation (2024), a rallying cry for organisations to ask uncomfortable questions about whether the way they lead, work, and change is still fit for purpose. Her work connects the forces reshaping the workforce now: generative AI, hybrid work, rising pressure on leaders, and global instability with practical, contemporary solutions grounded in real organisational experience.

As a keynote speaker, Blaire is known for bringing clarity, challenge, and fresh thinking to leadership events. Her talks are provocative, commercially grounded, and rooted in what actually works inside organisations, not recycled leadership wisdom. She helps audiences reconnect with meaning and purpose, guiding leaders to understand what truly engages their teams beyond superficial programmes or financial incentives. Audiences leave with language, insight, and practical shifts that stick, empowered to rethink their approach to work and lead with renewed focus. Whether addressing hybrid working, employee engagement, or the future of leadership, Blaire delivers unparalleled insight into what's happening in the most innovative boardrooms and what works when it comes to change and leadership in real businesses right now.