- Former Financial Times columnist.
- Works with Cambridge University on leadership development.
- Lectured at MIT Sloan on leadership matters.
- Founder of the Intelligent Leadership Hub a think and do tank focused on resetting leadership.
- Former technologist who today advises leaders on transformational matters.
- Has worked in over forty countries across the world.
- Has written six books on leadership and transformation.
* This specific fee falls within this range. Ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Leading Authorities representative.
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About Ade McCormack
Download ProfileAde McCormack is a globally recognised keynote speaker and advisor on how organisations can thrive in an increasingly disruptive and unpredictable world. He is also a former Financial Times columnist and has delivered in over forty countries.
With a background spanning over four decades, from software engineering to C-suite advisory, Ade focuses on one central question:
How do organisations designed for more innocent times survive and thrive in an increasingly disruptive world?
He helps senior leaders strengthen how their organisations sense change, make decisions under pressure, and execute effectively—enabling them to respond more confidently to disruption.
His work explores how organisations can be designed as living systems, capable of sensing change, making better decisions and acting with speed and coherence.
He argues that many investments in leadership, digital transformation and employee experience address symptoms rather than root causes, leaving organisations fundamentally unprepared for disruption.
His sessions connect these ideas directly to organisational performance—giving leaders a clearer way to assess and improve how their organisations operate.
Audiences gain a visceral sense of how their organisation can move from an inert, process-driven machine to a real-time, adaptive, innovation-fuelled system capable of thriving in hostile environments.
Ade has worked with senior leaders across the public and private sectors, helping them rethink leadership, organisational design and the role of technology and people in an age defined by uncertainty.
Video Gallery
Ade McCormack – Disruption Primer
Ade McCormack – Digital Transformation Primer
Ade McCormack – The Future of Work Primer
Ade McCormack – Leadership Primer
Ade McCormack on the Evolution of Work
Ade McCormack on the Digital Age
ATM17 EMEA: Keynote, Ade McCormack, Digital Strategist
Homo Extensis: Augmented Man – Ade McCormack, Financial Times
GOTO 2016 • Business 4.0 • Ade McCormack
Interview with Ade McCormack, Digital Strategist
Ade McCormack – Disruption Primer
Ade McCormack – Digital Transformation Primer
Ade McCormack – The Future of Work Primer
Ade McCormack – Leadership Primer
Ade McCormack on the Evolution of Work
Ade McCormack on the Digital Age
ATM17 EMEA: Keynote, Ade McCormack, Digital Strategist
Homo Extensis: Augmented Man – Ade McCormack, Financial Times
GOTO 2016 • Business 4.0 • Ade McCormack
Interview with Ade McCormack, Digital Strategist
Speech Topics
Download TopicsHow to design organisations that can sense, decide and act in real time:
- Why traditional organisational models are failing
- The shift from hierarchy to distributed intelligence
- Designing for speed, adaptability and resilience.
Why leadership must evolve beyond control and certainty:
- Decision-making under ambiguity
- Leadership as an organisational ‘nervous system’, not an individual capability
- Creating organisations that don’t rely on heroic leaders.
Why structure, not strategy, is now the limiting factor:
- The hidden constraints inside traditional organisations
- Moving from static structures to dynamic systems
- Aligning people, technology and decision-making
- Rethinking governance.
How human and machine intelligence combine to create competitive advantage:
- AI as part of the organisational ‘nervous system’
- Augmenting decision-making at scale – the player closest to the ball…
- Avoiding the trap of digital transformation as the solution to increasing disruption.
Audiences leave with:
• A clear understanding of why their current organisational model is under pressure
• A new mental model: the organisation as a living, intelligent system
• Practical insights into how to improve sensing, decision-making and execution
• A clearer view of how to translate these insights into improved organisational performance.
His sessions are particularly effective with senior leadership audiences where there is a need to rethink how the organisation operates in response to increasing complexity.
Ideal Audience
Public and private events that include:
• CEOs and executive teams
• CHROs / People leaders
• CIOs / Digital and AI leaders
• Public sector leadership teams.
Through his extensive work with FT Live and major brands, Ade also has extensive experience as:
• A conference chair
• Panel moderator
• Private event facilitator, host and speaker.
Ade is often engaged to provide a contrasting perspective at events—bringing strategic clarity and a results-oriented lens that challenges and elevates the core operational agenda.
Tone / Style
• Strategic and thought-provoking
• Outcome-focused and commercially grounded
• Engaging and entertaining
• Human-centric and inspiring
• Grounded in real-world experience
• Clear, structured, and commercially relevant
• Challenges assumptions while remaining practical.
Related Links
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