Heather is an outstanding leader and mentor. She’s easily reachable and is always willing to offer advice and provide support when necessary. She’s highly respected by the GoProposal team as she’s always looking to improve her own development and welcomes feedback regularly. Heather has created a welcoming and fun yet efficient working environment for the GP team, and it’s a pleasure to have her as a leader and manager. I personally feel I have learnt so much about myself and the working world thanks to Heather!
Levi, Marketing & Partnerships Manager
Heather Elkington – Leadership Strategist, TEDx Speaker & Founder of Fresh Leadership World
Heather Elkington is a dynamic leadership strategist and public speaker dedicated to helping new managers and emerging leaders thrive in today’s fast-moving world. From her early days on the shop floor at Harrods to scaling a SaaS startup and eventually holding a key FTSE 100 operations role managing five teams in an organisation of 11,000, Heather brings real-world experience to every keynote. As the founder of Fresh Leadership World, she now partners with major organisations and delivers inspiring workshops globally.
Speaking Topics
- Effective Leadership for First-Time Managers
- Building High-Performing Teams
- Leading Through Change and Uncertainty
- From Startup to Scale: Lessons in Growth
- Emotional Intelligence & Modern Workplace Culture
- How to Handle Difficult Employees (Without Losing Your Mind)
- Leadership 101: What Your Old Boss Never Knew
- Stop Being Nice, Start Being Kind
Credentials & Impact
Heather Elkington started her career as an Assistant Manager at Harrods, learning first-hand that leadership makes or breaks business outcomes. She co-founded a SaaS company that exceeded £2 million in revenue and later exited into a high eight-figure deal. After that entrepreneurial success, Heather transitioned to a senior role as Operations Director within an FTSE 100 subsidiary, overseeing operations and teams at scale. In 2016, she founded Fresh Leadership World to train new and emerging leaders worldwide. Her programmes have empowered over 10,000 managers, and she has delivered keynote talks and workshops for clients including the Ministry of Defence and Wolters Kluwer.
Publications & Media
Heather is a recognised TEDx speaker and weekly columnist, producing thought-leadership content on leadership and culture for tens of thousands of subscribers. Her insights into new-manager challenges, leadership habits, and organisational culture have featured across leadership podcasts, professional development forums and corporate training platforms. Her work emphasises actionable strategies over theory, and she connects deeply with audiences seeking to lead teams confidently from day one.
Why Book Heather Elkington?
Booking Heather Elkington brings an inspiring and high-impact keynote that blends entrepreneurial energy with corporate experience and modern leadership thinking. She uses authentic storytelling, practical frameworks and interactive delivery to help delegates leave with confidence, clarity and actionable tools. Whether your audience consists of first-time managers, team leads or senior executives navigating transformation, Heather’s message resonates, inspires and sticks.
To book Heather Elkington to speak at your event, call SpeakOut on +44 (0) 20 8914 8966. Alternatively, complete our contact form to begin your enquiry.
020 8914 8966
020 8914 8966
