About
Dan Pontefract is a leadership strategist, culture change expert, award-winning author, and recognized keynote speaker. Dan offers a variety of services including organizational culture and leadership assessments, organizational design/redesign, strategic planning, executive consulting as well as team workshops. You might also be interested in Dan Pontefract’s engaging keynotes, too.
The future of work is now.
DAN’S BIO
Dan Pontefract is a renowned leadership strategist, author, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience in senior executive roles at companies such as SAP, TELUS, and Business Objects. Since then, he has worked with organizations worldwide, including Salesforce, Amgen, the State of Tennessee, Nestlé, Canada Post, Autodesk, BMO, the Government of Canada, Manulife, Nutrien, and the City of Toronto, among others.
As an award-winning and best-selling author, Dan has written four books: LEAD. CARE. WIN., OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT, and FLAT ARMY. His fifth book, WORK-LIFE BLOOM, will be published in 2023. Dan also writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and other outlets.
Dan is a renowned keynote speaker who has presented at four TED events and has delivered over 600 keynotes . He is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business and has received over 25 industry, individual, and book awards.
Dan’s career is interwoven with corporate and academic experience, coupled with an MBA, B.Ed, and multiple industry certifications and awards. Notably, Dan is listed on the Thinkers50 Radar, HR Weekly’s 100 Most Influential People in HR, PeopleHum’s Top 200 Thought Leaders to Follow, and Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers.
Download Dan’s short or long bio.
Interested in an engaging keynote? Check out Dan’s speaker sizzle reel.
Did you know? You can buy signed copies of Dan’s books, personalized just for you. Check out Dan’s Shopify site and order from there.
ACCOLADES
Dan has also delivered four different TEDx Talks. You can watch them over here.
Inc. named him one of the top 100 leadership speakers.
Dan was honoured to be on the Thinkers50 radar list. In 2019, he was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Talent Award.
POETRY
Dan loves to read and write poetry. He may even publish a book of poetry one day. For now, check this spot for a rotation of poems.
Spring Has Sprung
— Dan Pontefract, April 2022
Media Kit
Short Bio & Speaker Intro (with downloadable PDF)
Dan is the best-selling author of four books: LEAD. CARE. WIN., OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at four different TED events and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career.
His fourth book, LEAD. CARE. WIN., is the 2022 Nautilus Book Awards silver medal winner in the leadership/business category. His third book, OPEN TO THINK is the 2019 getAbstract International Book of the Year winner and the 2019 Axiom Business Book Award Silver Medal winner in the Leadership category.
Previously as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of over $14 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%. Prior to TELUS he held senior roles at SAP, Business Objects and BCIT.
Dan and his wife, Denise, have three children (aka goats) and live in Victoria, Canada.
Long Bio (with downloadable PDF)
Dan Pontefract
Leadership Strategist, Culture Change Expert, Author, Speaker
Dan is the best-selling author of four books: LEAD. CARE. WIN. How to Become a Leader Who Matters, OPEN TO THINK: Slow Down, Think Creatively, and Make Better Decisions, THE PURPOSE EFFECT: Building Meaning in Yourself, Your Role and Your Organization and FLAT ARMY: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. Dan is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business.
His fourth book, LEAD. CARE. WIN., is the 2022 Nautilus Book Awards silver medal winner in the leadership/business category. His third book, OPEN TO THINK won the 2019 getAbstract International Book of the Year and the 2019 Axiom Business Book Award Silver Medal winner in the Leadership category.
Previously, as Chief Envisioner of TELUS he founded the Transformation Office in 2014 to help organizations enhance their corporate culture, leadership, learning, work styles & collaboration practices. As Chief Learning Officer at TELUS, Dan was responsible for the overarching leadership, collaboration & learning strategy for the company. Dan championed the introduction of the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP), a collaborative-based leadership framework for 50,000+ team members. In parallel to these actions he drove a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS views and experiences learning called “Pervasive Learning” the shift to a social, informal and formal learning model. He further championed the use and deployment of collaborative technologies to complement both the leadership and learning frameworks.
Between 2008 and 2018, employee engagement at TELUS soared from 53% to nearly 90%. Dan’s innovation also led to the introduction of the TELUS MBA—run in partnership with the University of Victoria—which allows TELUS team members the opportunity to garner an MBA over a two-year period. The program has won three international awards and delivered new revenues and savings in excess of $300 million.
His career is interwoven with both corporate and academic experience, coupled with an MBA, B.Ed and multiple industry certifications and accreditations. Dan is also a renowned speaker and has been invited to deliver over 300 external keynotes and presentations, including four TED Talks. In 2012 he appeared on the front cover of T+D Magazine and Chief Learning Officer Magazine. Dan also writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review and The Huffington Post.
In 2010, Dan was acknowledged by CLO as a ‘Vanguard Award’ winner and is a 2-time winner by the Corporate University Best in Class Awards of the ‘Leader of the Year’ in both 2010 and 2011. In 2012, SkillSoft awarded Dan the ‘Learning Leader of the Year’ for his work at TELUS and CLO Magazine bestowed the ‘Learning in Practice Innovation Award’ as well. He is also the recipient of the 2012 Brandon-Hall ‘Gold Award in Strategy & Governance’. In 2015, TELUS became a 10-time winner of the prestigious ‘ATD BEST’ award under his leadership and was the first-ever recipient of the ATD Hall of Fame distinction. In 2013 and 2014, TELUS also placed in the top ten of the Learning! 100 Awards.
Previous to his ten years at TELUS he held senior positions over twelve years with SAP, Business Objects, Crystal Decisions and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).
Dan and his wife, Denise, have three children (aka goats) and live in Victoria, Canada.
Keynote A/V Requirements (with downloadable PDF)
Dan Pontefract
A/V and Other Requirements for Keynote Speaking Engagements
- Lavalier microphone (no handheld or earhook microphones)
- Definitely no podiums
- Comfort monitor (if not doable, Dan’s laptop must be available on stage and hooked up to an HDMI cable)
- Clicker (to advance slides — if Dan’s laptop is being used, he will bring his own clicker)
- Sound capabilities to broadcast videos to the audience
- PowerPoint (not Google Slides, PDF, Prezi, or Keynote)
- One bottle / glass of water
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What others are saying
Loved Dan! I think he is the best speaker that I have heard from at the breakfast series. Engaging, relevant, powerful speaker.
One of the best motivational speakers we have had over the past 21 years.
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.
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!
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!
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.
