Full Potential is Possible

DanPontefract

Leadership Strategist, Culture Change Expert, Keynote Speaker & Award-Winning Author

Watch Dan’s 3-minute Speaker Sizzle Reel

With twenty-five plus years of experience helping leaders and organizations shift to higher levels of employee engagement, productivity, and bottom-line results, Dan Pontefract knows what it takes to make change happen.

Dan is the award-winning and best-selling author of four leadership / management books: LEAD. CARE. WIN. How to Become a Leader Who Matters, OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT and FLAT ARMY.

A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at four different TED events, delivers roughly 50 keynotes per year, and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career.

Dan is honoured to be on the Thinkers50 Radar list. HR Weekly listed him as one of its 100 Most Influential People in HR. PeopleHum listed Dan on the Top 200 Thought Leaders to Follow and Inc. Magazine listed him as one of the top 100 leadership speakers.

Between 1998 and 2018, Dan worked full-time in senior roles at SAP, TELUS, Business Objects and BCIT developing leaders and team members while also working closely with partners and customers.

As Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of nearly $20 billion and 50,000 global employees—he launched the Transformation Office, the TELUS MBA, and the TELUS Leadership Philosophy, all award-winning initiatives that dramatically helped to increase the company’s employee engagement to record levels of nearly 90%.

Areas of Expertise
Close Expertise Menu
Changing organizational culture
Leadership development facilitation
Developing leadership models
Executive team development
Increasing employee engagement
Analyzing productivity gaps
Strategic planning
Improving collaboration practices
Shifting to flexible/hybrid work
Defining & enacting purpose
Tactics for better thinking
Sharing a beer or scotch

What’s New

Silver Medal Win!! Lead. Care. Win. won the 2022 Nautilus Book Award silver medal in the leadership/business category. Have you bought your copy yet?

Updated sizzle reel: check out this highly engaging 3-minute video of Dan Pontefract in action

New download: Pontefract Group Services and Offerings – full listing of the ways in which you can access Dan and team.

Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract podcast is back with fantastic discussions. Click for the list of special guests including new episodes with Arianna Huffington, Dan Pink, Lynda Gratton and Ranjay Gulati.

Masterclass Option: Purchase Lead. Care. Win. online learning licenses for your team or organization & you can add a kick-off and ending live virtual session with Dan. Inquire for all the details.

Online Leadership Courses

Download the LEAD. CARE. WIN. Learning Program course outlines for all NINE lessons.

Assessments & Extras

Click to gain access to free assessments where you can score your current leadership abilities. No purchase necessary. 100% free!

FREE
Learn More
Register
Masterclass Bundle

The LEAD. CARE. WIN. masterclass program bundle includes over 16 hours of material across 9 super practical leadership lessons.

$249 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #1: Be Relatable

Be real. Open up. Empathize. Respect others. Show your underbelly.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #2: Play for Meaning

There is more to leadership than climbing the corporate ladder.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #3: Stay Present

You can’t manage time; you can only change your present behaviour.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #4: Remain Curious

To be curious and more engaged is to become a lifelong learner.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #5: Embrace Change

Change is a constant; your capacity to adapt is what matters.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #6: Dare to Share

Learning how to impart and request information is a leader’s secret weapon.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #7: Command Clarity

Leaders who blindly follow are inferior to those who clearly deliver strategy.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #8: Commit to Balance

Operate from a position of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
Lesson #9: Champion Others

Your self-worth as a leader is predicated in your humility and humbleness.

$29 / CAD
Learn More
Register
View All
Award-winning literature
Learn More
Learn More
Learn More
Learn More
Keynote Speaker
Face-to-face or virtual, Dan delivers engaging, practical, story-driven, tailored keynotes on the themes of leadership, culture, purpose & thinking.
Learn More
Assessments
Assess the current state of your corporate culture, leadership practices and/or remote work strategy, complete with a full set of recommendations.
Learn More
Workshops
In small or large groups, online or in person, Dan directly helps people improve their current abilities through engaging workshops, full of practical takeaways, team improvements and career-changing advice.
Learn More
Read Dan’s Lastest Writing…
Find out what’s on Dan’s mind through his up-to-date writing, often featured on Forbes, Harvard Business Review and other outlets, reposted here.
Learn More
What People are Saying

WOW what a talk! I have been inundated with positive feedback from your keynote all weekend. You hit the nail on the head in terms of what’s happening in our organization and your examples really resonated with our group. One of our Execs was really thankful for how you directly tackled the “elephants in our room”. Our SVP couldn’t stop praising you during the reception. Thank you!

Vice President

Dan is a conference organizer’s ideal speaker. Not only did he inspire and energize our group, but he also masterfully adapted his content so it resonated with the audience and our conference theme. As a bonus, Dan is able to nimbly navigate to adjust to a reduced time slot when other speakers went over time without sacrificing the impact of his session.

Director and General Counsel

Dan was excellent. He really took into account our briefing and developed a presentation that was spot on. Everyone enjoyed it. I have read his book now too, quite good.

SVP Communications

Dan, thank you for sharing your wisdom with the professionals within the State of Tennessee – we are better leaders because we learned how to be Open To Think!

Chief Learning Officer

Loved Dan! I think he is the best speaker that I have heard from at the breakfast series. Engaging, relevant, powerful speaker.

Event Attendee

One of the best motivational speakers we have had over the past 21 years.

CEO

Thank you for your keynote talk this morning. It was funny and filled with good advice and ideas, and unsurprisingly, the feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive.

Executive Director

Dan Pontefract presented at our Practice Management & Tax Summit as the closing keynote and was a real hit for our members. He not only brought his presentation to life with his charisma, but also content, style and presentation finesse.  Our members were especially interested in his thought provoking AND top of mind topic on the future of work and how we’re going to be leading the next generation of leaders

Practice Lead

Dan presented a high energy talk at our internal conference. He challenged us to have clarity of purpose, both as individuals and as an organization. He related inspiring stories drawing on his experience in business, technology and academia.

Vice-President

We accomplished what we set out to do, which was not only to be inspirational, but also to leave everyone with tools and food for thought / self-reflection to improve their personal and professional lives.

Sales Director