Available to book
Laura Penn
Leadership Development
Communication
Storytelling
Dr. Laura Penn helps leaders and teams master leadership communication, speechcraft, and storytelling to build trust and increase revenue. Award-winning speaker and master teacher, her clients include the World Economic Forum, the International Olympic Committee, Nestle, and Salesforce
Professional Development
Author
Educator
Workshop Facilitators
Podcast
TEDx
Dr. Laura Penn is the communication whisperer to the C-suite, supporting leaders and executive teams to speak with greater impact and authenticity in the digital age.
She is the winner of the Bookers' Choice Award at the 2026 Speakers Awards, a four-time TEDx speaker with two appearances on TED.com, and host of the podcast Leadership Speaking Radio. She founded The Leadership Speaking School and has written three books on her method, alongside contributing to UN Today, the United Nations' official magazine. She received her BA from Vassar College where she studied biology and dance and holds an MSc. and a Ph.D. in biodiversity management, working as a conservation biologist before building her career in leadership communication.
Laura's approach centers on the craft of leadership speaking, a core business communication skill that she considers among the most critical for 21st-century leadership. Drawing on her background as both a scientist and a performing artist, she works with organizations including the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the International Olympic Committee, the World Wildlife Fund, and Salesforce, supporting their leaders to speak with impact and authenticity.
Audiences leave her sessions able to identify their strengths and development areas as communicators, apply practical tools to virtual meetings, pitches, and presentations, and build the trust that drives stronger collaboration and increases employee engagement. Her talks are bold and highly interactive, engaging participants from the opening minutes.
Book Laura to give leaders and teams the skills they need to thrive in the fast-moving communication landscape of the digital age.
Topics, sessions and talks
Dr. Laura Penn examines the widening gap between humanity's rapidly evolving technology and its unchanged biological wiring, particularly around communication. She traces how today's leaders, expected to speak across virtual meetings, town halls, panels, and podcasts in ever greater volume, are pushing that ancient wiring past its limits. Blending evolutionary anatomy with practical strategy, Laura gives audiences new perspective on why digital communication feels so exhausting, plus concrete tools for staying agile and effective across every platform.
Global challenges are rarely framed as communication problems, yet Dr. Laura Penn argues that courage, empathy, and collective progress all depend on how well people talk to one another. She reframes communication as the backbone of meaningful change, showing leaders, teams, and changemakers why good intentions fail without the skills to reach people's hearts and minds. Laura challenges audiences to rethink ineffective habits and offers a practical starting point for using communication as a force for good.
Digital tools have connected humanity on an unprecedented scale, and Dr. Laura Penn shows leaders that this connection comes with a cost: nowhere left to hide from how they communicate. She argues that everything communicates, whether in a hybrid meeting, a customer call, or a hallway conversation, and that leaders can no longer treat it as an afterthought. In this energizing, interactive session, Laura gives leaders and teams practical tools to speak with impact and human connection, and to use them immediately.
Testimonials
Featured Projects
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Communication
Leadership Development
Employee Engagement
Gordon K Williams
Communication
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Confidence
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email laura.penn@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 Laura's availability and fees. 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 a bit about your audience.
Laura Penn blends evolutionary biology with performing arts training to frame leadership communication as a craft skill, drawing on her background as both a conservation biologist and a performing artist to give audiences a science-grounded lens on why digital communication strains human wiring. Sessions are structured as interactive, tools-based experiences in which participants leave with a self-assessment of their communication strengths and development areas alongside practical techniques applicable to virtual meetings, pitches, and presentations.
Dr. Laura Penn's sessions address digital communication and leadership, the biological limits of human communication in a technology-driven world, and communication as a driver of collective and organisational change. She is the winner of the Bookers' Choice Award at the 2026 Speakers Awards and a four-time TEDx speaker with two appearances on TED.com.
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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