Rowan Gibson Speaker Profile

Global Business Strategist

Rowan Gibson is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on business innovation. The media have labeled him “Mr. Innovation”, “the Innovation Grandmaster”, “the W. Edwards Deming of innovation” and “a guru among the gurus”. He is the internationally bestselling author of two major books on business strategy and innovation – Rethinking The Future (1996) and Innovation to the Core (2008) – which have been published to date in 25 languages. His latest book, Innovation to the Core (Harvard Business School Press), explains – for the first time – how to build and sustain a deep, company-wide innovation capability that drives continual growth and strategic renewal.

Over the last two decades, Gibson’s international clients have included some of the world’s largest and most successful organizations. He teaches them how to seize new growth opportunities, create new markets and even transform entire industries by recalibrating their whole organizational system around the paradigm of innovation.

Rowan Gibson is one of the world’s most in-demand public speakers. In just the last four years alone, he has delivered his keynote speeches, innovation masterclasses and public seminars in 55 countries around the world. He has addressed a long list of major organizations, including Accenture, Bayer, British Telecom, Coca-Cola, Credit Suisse, Dow Chemicals, Generali Group, Haier, Heinz, Henkel, IBM, Mars, Microsoft, Motorola, NOKIA, Philips, P&G, Roche, Siemens, Steelcase, Telefonica and Volkswagen. Rowan’s big-picture insights, compelling observations, fresh business thinking and upbeat presentation style have impressed a wide range of audiences all over the world. He mixes insight, inspiration and information in a way that always leaves an audience feeling energized.

Rowan Gibson’s keynote speeches, executive sessions and innovation masterclasses are always tailor-made to fit each audience, industry sector and event format. He endeavours, wherever possible, to use business cases and examples that are relevant to the specific audience. Gibson uses very graphic Powerpoint slides – each typically features just one powerful image and a single statement – which makes his presentations extremely dynamic. He is constantly updating his slides with cutting-edge material and up-to-the-minute business news.

In his years on the public speaking circuit, Rowan has shared the stage with well-known celebrities like Neil Armstrong, Ken Blanchard, Deepak Chopra, Bill Clinton, Jim Collins, Newt Gingrich, Guy Kawasaki, John Naisbitt, Bertrand Piccard, Jonas Ridderstråle, Alvin Toffler and FonsTrompenaars. His speaking engagements have often been arranged as follow-ups to other high caliber speakers like Rudi Giuliani, Gary Hamel, Kjell Nordstrom and Tom Peters.

Rowan is also a prolific writer. In addition to his bestselling books, he has authored dozens of business articles, columns and blogs which have been read all around the globe. He has been interviewed frequently on television and radio, as well as online and in the international press. His media appearances include Forbes, CNN, BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, and BBC World Service. He has also appeared in several business documentaries.

Rowan Gibson is co-founder of Innovation Exellence website – the world’s most popular innovation website. The portal, which builds on an international group of nearly 12,000 members from over 175 countries, offers an arsenal of resources from today's innovation thought leaders and practitioners that is aimed at helping every company achieve innovation excellence. The site currently serves up more than 1 million pages every month.

Gibson has lived and worked in various countries over the last twenty years and speaks three languages fluently. Today, he divides his time between writing, public speaking and consulting.