Available to book
Holly Budge
Build risk-ready leaders with Holly Budge, keynote speaker, Everest summiteer, and global conservation leader. Holly helps organisations move from risk-averse to bold, decisive action, using her Risk-Ready Mindset framework. She has delivered keynotes for J.P. Morgan, Shell, British Airways, and McKinsey, and is a Gold Stevie Award winner for Thought Leader of the Year.
Holly Budge is an Everest summiteer and the first woman to skydive Everest, and she helps leaders build the mindset and tools to make bold, calculated decisions when conditions are uncertain.
After earning a Master's in Sustainable Design, Holly founded the global conservation charity How Many Elephants and created World Female Ranger Week. Her work, praised by Sir David Attenborough, has reached over 500 million people and raised more than £500,000 for female rangers in at least 24 countries. A UN Women UK Delegate and Gold Stevie Award winner, she is named in the WISE100 Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise and The Diversity Power List 2025.
Holly has spoken for J.P. Morgan, Shell, McKinsey, British Airways, and The North Face, and her work has featured in Forbes, National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, and Marie Claire. She draws on real experience, from surviving a freefall gone wrong at 29,500 feet to racing 1,000 km across Mongolia on wild horses and patrolling with anti-poaching units in Africa. Through her Risk-Ready Mindset framework, she turns that experience into practical strategies for leadership, strategic planning, and organisational change.
Audiences leave Holly's sessions with tools to break overwhelming goals into specific, actionable steps, techniques to reframe setbacks as learning opportunities, and a tested approach to building resilience when conditions are volatile.
Book Holly to give your audience a clear, proven framework for turning uncertainty into a competitive advantage.
Topics, sessions and talks
Most organisations say they embrace risk, but default to caution when the stakes are real. Holly Budge draws on summiting Everest from the north side, becoming the first woman to skydive Everest, and patrolling on the frontline with anti-poaching units in Africa to unpack what bold, calculated decision-making looks like under pressure. Through her Risk-Ready Mindset framework, she equips leaders with the tools to move from hesitation to purposeful action and turn uncertainty into a competitive edge.
The leaders who perform best in volatile, fast-moving environments are the ones brave enough to act before they have every answer. Holly Budge draws on leading teams on high-altitude expeditions and working alongside armed rangers on the frontline of conservation to examine what courageous, empathetic leadership looks like when the stakes are highest. Teams leave with a sharper understanding of how to build trust, fuel innovation, and hold steady through uncertainty and change.
Sustainability is too often treated as a compliance exercise when it works best as a strategy. Drawing on more than a decade of front-line conservation work protecting African elephants and supporting women-led ranger initiatives in at least 24 countries, Holly Budge challenges boards and senior leaders to see environmental risk as a business resilience issue. Through field stories and concrete examples, she shows how organisations that integrate purpose and profit are future-proofing themselves for the long term.
Holly brings tested frameworks from Everest summits and high-stakes conservation leadership that translate directly into how your teams assess risk and execute under pressure. She'll give your leaders practical tools to break down complex challenges and build organisational resilience when market conditions demand bold moves.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Holly Budge, email holly.budge@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Holly's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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