Available to book
Marie Gleeson
Leadership speaker Marie Gleeson helps organisations make better decisions under pressure and build resilient, high-performing teams. A former Irish Navy ship captain, Marie wrote the Irish Times bestseller Be Like the Sea and has spoken for Microsoft and IPPN.
Marie Gleeson is a former Irish Navy ship captain who helps leaders make sound decisions under pressure, build teams that trust each other, and stay resilient when plans fall apart.
Marie joined the Irish Navy as a cadet in 1998 and served for over two decades, as one of its first female officers and later as Commanding Officer of LE Aoife. Her memoir, Be Like the Sea: Life, Learnings and Leadership from an Irish Navy Captain, made the Irish Times Bestseller List, and she has a regular leadership slot on Newstalk with Claire Byrne.
Her career took her from Atlantic patrols and international drug interdictions to a deployment in the Chadian desert, and through the loss of a colleague at sea. She uses those moments to show how high-performing teams are built on clear systems, commitment, and trust. As a leadership consultant and coach at NavMar Leadership, she works with leaders across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, including Microsoft and the Irish Principals' Network.
Audiences leave with a clearer way to make tough calls under pressure, practical ideas for building trust and psychological safety in their teams, and an honest view of how self-awareness shapes authentic leadership. Her keynotes and in-conversation events mix candour with humour, and she often stays afterwards to talk with attendees.
For events on leadership, resilience, or women in leadership, Marie brings hard-won experience from a world where every decision carries real consequences.
Topics, sessions and talks
In this session, Marie Gleeson discusses key insights from operating in high-tempo, high-risk environments where lives were on the line. She emphasises that high performance is built on systems, commitment, clarity and anchored in trust. To really operate at levels of excellence, teams have to be agile, especially when operating in a world where crisis is the new norm. Marie homes in on the concept of “Team” to ensure that attendees walk away with key insights to enhance their overall success.
To lead effectively, you have to know who you are. It sounds easy, however, developing the self-awareness needed to deliver for your team requires a depth of emotional intelligence that doesn’t always come easy. Marie Gleeson shares the key lessons she learned from leading at the highest level and how she learned the most from when she got it wrong. Authentic is not just a theory of leadership – it is the critical success factor when you get it right.
Marie Gleeson faced and overcame many challenges and barriers as one of the first women in the Irish navy. Her resilience was built through tough training, deployments in the middle of the Atlantic and in the heat of the Chadian desert. But the worst storm she faced was the one that was not forecast. She had all the skills to survive at sea in a life raft – but when life put her in a place of “sink or swim”, – she had to dig deep to survive. Her insights on resilience resonate with attendees long after this session finishes.
Military Leadership Training in the 1990s did not feature classes on feelings or emotions. Mindfulness and Wellbeing were not part of the syllabus. An Officer was always to be in control of their ship and of themselves. Standards were high; life was tough. When you operate in high-risk environments with life and limb on the line, you carry the load on the inside. Marie delivers key insights for attendees on how you can set high standards, make tough decisions, and still lead with compassion.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Marie Gleeson, email marie.gleeson@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 Marie'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.
Marie Gleeson builds her talks around specific moments from her naval career, such as Atlantic drug interdictions and the loss of a colleague at sea, and uses each one to draw out a principle on decision-making, trust, or compassionate leadership, told with candour and humour.
Marie Gleeson specialises in building high-performing teams, the journey to authentic leadership, resilience under pressure, and leading with compassion while holding high standards. She served over two decades in the Irish Navy, rising to Commanding Officer of LE Aoife as one of its first female officers, and her memoir Be Like the Sea made the Irish Times Bestseller List.
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