Available to book
Kate Vitasek
Kate Vitasek helps organizations build high-performance partnerships and cultures. A University of Tennessee faculty member, she delivers research-backed frameworks for creating more strategic relationships and collaborative business models, recognized with the 2025 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award.
Kate Vitasek has spent decades researching why business partnerships fail and building a proven framework to fix that. Her Vested® business model has reshaped how organizations structure contracts and collaboration.
A faculty member at the University of Tennessee, Kate received the 2025 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award and was named one of World Trade Magazine's "Fabulous 50+1" most influential people impacting global commerce. She has authored eight books, including Vested: How P&G, McDonald's and Microsoft Are Redefining Winning in Business Relationships and Getting to We.
Kate's research draws on real-world case studies to help companies move beyond transactional supplier relationships and shift from a "me" to "we" mindset. Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and FAST Company, and she has appeared on CNN International, Bloomberg, NPR, and Fox Business News. This breadth of exposure reflects how widely her ideas have traveled across industries.
Audiences leave Kate's sessions with a clear understanding of why traditional contracts create adversarial dynamics, a practical framework for structuring partnerships that align incentives on both sides, and specific tools drawn from Fortune 500 implementations.
Kate brings research-backed, field-tested thinking to one of the most overlooked drivers of business performance: how organizations work with each other.
Topics, sessions and talks
Kate Vitasek challenges the assumptions underpinning how most organizations structure their business relationships, making the case that transactional thinking creates adversarial dynamics even where both parties intend to collaborate. Drawing on real-world examples of companies that moved beyond "us vs. them" contracting, she introduces the Five Rules of Vested® to help organizations unlock partnership value that conventional approaches leave on the table. Attendees leave ready to rethink the game they are playing in their existing relationships.
Kate Vitasek argues that getting to yes is no longer enough. The organizations winning today are those that have learned to get to we. This session introduces a proven five-step approach for shifting from a "what's in it for me" to a “What’s in it for We” mindset, drawing on real-world examples of organizations that made the transition from internal competition to aligned engagement. Attendees leave with practical tools to begin building the conditions for a culture that sustains collaboration over time.
Kate Vitasek reframes trust not as something that must be slowly earned, but as something leaders can actively choose to create. Grounded in research into how leading organizations have achieved breakthrough performance, this session introduces five pillars for building transparency and trust in teams and partnerships. Rather than treating trust as an intangible quality, Kate gives attendees practical tools to foster it deliberately and systematically and shows what becomes possible for teams when they do.
Kate Vitasek exposes why traditional outsourcing models fall short and what to do instead. Drawing on the research behind her Vested framework, she shows how the Five Rules of Vested Outsourcing shift relationships from transactional to transformational using real case studies. Attendees leave with a clear methodology for redesigning how they work with outsourcing partners, and the motivation to act on it.
Kate's Vested® framework has reshaped how businesses structure supplier relationships, moving towards aligned partnerships that deliver measurable performance gains. Her research-backed approach provides practical tools that leaders use to unlock value in their existing relationships, both within their teams and with their outsourcing partners.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Kate Vitasek, email kate.vitasek@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 Kate'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.
Kate Vitasek structures her sessions around a named framework — the Five Rules of Vested® or a five-step/five-pillar model — applied to real-world case studies drawn from Fortune 500 companies, including P&G, McDonald's, and Microsoft, to illustrate how organisations have moved from transactional to collaborative partnership models.
Kate Vitasek speaks on collaborative contracting, trust-building in teams, and the shift from transactional to partnership-based business relationships. She is the creator of the Vested® business model, a University of Tennessee faculty member, and recipient of the 2025 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award, with eight authored books and work featured in Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and FAST Company.
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