Speaking Arts and

Dr. Laura Penn is a master teacher in the speaking arts and an international authority on leadership communication. Award winning speaker and four-time TEDx speaker, earning the honor of twice being selected to appear on the prestigious TED.com platform, home of the world’s best talks, Dr. Penn knows her craft. She is the Founder of The Leadership Speaking School, the host of the popular podcast “Leadership Speaking Radio” and an author at UN Today, the official magazine of the United Nations’ international community.

She has written two books about her revolutionary method for leadership communication.  Called “The Leadership Speaking Toolbox”, her ground-breaking approach reaches into the boardrooms, meeting rooms and conference halls of the world’s most well-known companies, business schools and organizations where she supports leaders and teams to thrive as communicators. Her clients include The World Economic Forum, The International Olympic Committee, The United Nations, The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), IMD Business School, Ebay, Nespresso, Salesforce, Logitech, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and many more.

Dr. Penn’s keynote talks are known for being bold, visionary and highly interactive. She explores tangible solutions to empower her audiences to communicate with impact, authenticity and human connection.  Her groundbreaking work supports leaders and teams to unleash their full potential as communicators so that they can show up as the best versions of themselves every time they communicate with their peers, teams and customers.

Speechcraft and storytelling, the key ingredients of Leadership Speaking, are the most  critical communication skills of the 21st Century. Through her work, Dr. Penn supports leaders and teams to close more sales, become better leaders and increase their influence.

Native of Sweden and of New York City, Dr. Penn has an eclectic background as both a scientist and as a performing artist. With a Ph.D. in biodiversity management, Dr. Penn is a trained specialist in conservation biology.  She is also an accomplished performing artist in dance, starting out as a break dancer in the 1980’s.  Mother of two teenagers, she loves gardening, dancing in the living room, Shakespeare, Spotify playlists and all things Japanese.