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Christie Hefner

Keynote Speaker

Groundbreaking Creative Executive and Brand Innovation Expert

Christie Hefner has led major global brands from the brink to the cutting edge through creative vision and transformative leadership, and provides key insights on the power and process of self-disruption in today’s business world.

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Christie Hefner'S SPEAKING FEE $25K - $40K

Christie Hefner Profile Photo

Christie Hefner, a trailblazer in the media and entertainment industry, has carved out a legacy that extends far beyond her role as former Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises. Her leadership transformed the brand into a global multimedia empire, showcasing her acumen for innovation, strategic growth, and social responsibility. Hefner’s tenure was marked by her commitment to free expression, content diversification, and digital expansion, setting new standards in the industry.

Beyond her business achievements, Hefner is a fervent advocate for women’s rights, freedom of expression, and corporate responsibility, making her insights invaluable for discussions on leadership, brand evolution, and social impact. Her engagements offer a unique blend of business strategy, cultural commentary, and advocacy, providing audiences with a comprehensive view of how to lead with integrity, embrace change, and drive societal progress.

Christie Hefner has led major global brands from the brink to the cutting edge through creative vision and transformative leadership, and provides key insights on the power and process of self-disruption in today’s business world.

Christie Hefner’s Speech Topics

  • Disruptive Innovation: Leadership in a Changing World

    From the paywall to Periscope, Venmo to viral philanthropy, the one constant in the world, and in the workforce today, is disruptive innovation. For every innovation that radically alters the way we do business, however, there are hundreds that stall and ultimately backfire. How do you spot the difference? Christie Hefner, a creative executive who has worked with numerous powerhouse global brands, is uniquely qualified to address this issue as a media savvy CEO who has successfully navigated the turbulent content distribution space. Today’s director must be able to distinguish noise from permanent change, and to that end, the “invisible decisions,” those things not done, often prove to be the most important. In this talk, Hefner offers audiences a rare glimpse into the best decisions she never made as a top executive and their immediate and enduring impacts. Repeatedly, she has anticipated market trends and met the demand with existing resources, while allowing the unprofitable parade to pass by. Hefner provides training on the tools and analytic skills necessary for decision makers to replicate her success in valuation as they assess and act in their own sectors.

  • Branding for a Better Business

    Christie Hefner, an accomplished creative executive who has worked with iconic lifestyle brands like Playboy and Canyon Ranch, and now advises HATCHBEAUTY, is the first to admit that the term “brand” is not only overused, but also incorrectly used. United is an airline, but Virgin is a brand. Why? Hefner, who worked to develop the valuable intersection of credible health and wellness and spa pampering, or lifestyle, under the Canyon Ranch umbrella, is a bona fide brand guru. Whether a brand is top of mind in the market, or simply packs a powerful emotional punch, Hefner offers strategies to extend and leverage a brand so that it both adds to the brand bank and supports the appeal of the core brand. She charts the relationship of social media and brand management and explains the integral role branding plays in issues of corporate responsibility and trust. Calling on her varied experiences with intellectual property, reputation, risk and social responsibility, Hefner delivers a comprehensive guide to brand management that is as exciting for audiences to follow (Netflix vs. Amazon vs. Apple) as its strategies are easy to implement.

  • More Women at the Table

    Christie Hefner is the longest-serving female chairman and CEO of a publicly traded U.S. company. An early and vocal advocate for women advancing women, Hefner encourages good corporate governance, particularly the advancement of women in management and on boards, in her work with the Committee of 200, The Chicago Network, WomenCorporateDirectors and Springboard Enterprises. She was also an advisor to The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything. As organizations move from diversity as “the right thing” to diversity as “the smart thing,” Hefner delivers an authoritative and personal take on structural issues, issues of perception and the latest research. Tightly threaded with engaging anecdotes of her time as the only woman at the table, Hefner offers audiences invaluable advice—challenging the conventional assumptions about mentorship and work-life balance, for example—which can be put into practice immediately to make equal representation in the workplace a profitable reality for both individuals and businesses.

  • Building a Culture of Creativity and Innovation

    Even as more and more organizations recognize the value of innovative thinking, our assumptions and ways of doing business remain grounded in old patterns, those that discourage risk-taking and reward the protection of the status quo. Nowhere is this contradiction more apparent than in those industries working to incorporate employees and ideas from Silicon Valley. How does the management of a financial firm or retail outfit encourage profitable failure? Christie Hefner, a well-respected creative executive who has worked with a number of high-end, innovative lifestyle brands, advocates for a radical reevaluation of everything from the brainstorm session to compensation, from leadership structure to reporting, in order to foster a culture of high-function creativity and innovation. Hefner’s explication of today’s cases (the Google Alphabet restructure, etc.) reveals that agility, both personal intellectual agility and corporate agility, is the means to a successful end in today’s business world. Participants will learn how to nurture their most agile mind in order to build their most agile business.

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