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Heather E. McGowan

2021 Speaker

HEATHER E. McGOWAN is an internationally known speaker, writer, and advisor. She helps leaders prepare their people and organizations for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. McGowan gives lucidity to this topic through her illuminating graphic frameworks and powerful metaphors, all backed by deep research. In 2017, LinkedIn ranked her as its number one global voice for education. Her clients range from start-ups to publicly traded Fortune 500 companies. Often quoted in the media, notably in the New York Times, McGowan serves on the advisory board for Sparks & Honey, a New York–based culture-focused agency looking to the future for brands. McGowan’s academic work has included roles at Rhode Island School of Design, Becker College, and Jefferson University, where she was the strategic architect of the first undergraduate college focused exclusively on innovation. In 2019 McGowan was appointed as a faculty member of the Swinburne University Centre For the New Workforce in Melbourne, Australia. Her think tank is called Work to Learn, because McGowan believes that in the Third Industrial Revolution, we learned (once) in order to work and now, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will work in order to learn (continuously). McGowan is the co-editor and author of the book Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate, and a Forbes contributor. Her latest book on the future of work, The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work was released by Wiley in April 2020. @heathermcgowan