Pat Wadors: Corporate Culture

Human-centered leadership keynote speaker and culture expert Pat Wadors helps organizations build belonging, engagement, and future-ready workplaces that drive performance and long-term business success.

Quick Facts:

  • Highlights:
    • Former Chief People Officer at LinkedIn and UKG
    • Global authority on organizational culture and employee engagement
    • Pioneer of belonging as a core business strategy
    • Expert on the future of work, leadership, and employee experience
  • Formats: Keynote Speaker and Leadership Expert
  • Audiences: Executive teams, HR leaders, people managers, boards, and organizations focused on culture transformation and employee engagement.
  • Outcomes:
    1. Learn how to build cultures rooted in belonging and trust
    2. Gain practical frameworks to increase engagement and retention
    3. Understand how human-centered leadership drives sustainable performance
Reading time: 2 min
Reviews: (0 reviews)
  • Travels from: Santa Barbara, CA
  • **Fee range: $35,001 - $50,000

Talent Services

Keynote Topics:

As SVP of Global Talent at LinkedIn, Pat Wadors transformed the way that organizations view DE&I. “What’s missing from the discussion is the notion of belonging,” she wrote in a breakthrough article in the Harvard Business Review.

“No matter what their background, their skin color, or gender, employees wanted what I wanted: to belong.” At LinkedIn, she coined the term, “DIBs,” the combination of Diversity and Inclusion with Belonging. The framework not only struck a cultural chord, but notably increased both employee engagement and LinkedIn’s recruitment and retention numbers—even attracting top-tier candidates from companies such as Apple and Google that had previously eluded them.

All because LinkedIn had become known for their culture of belonging. In this inspiring talk, Pat shares research, data, and her talent for storytelling to show how any size organization, in any industry, can build a culture of belonging where employees feel free to bring their authentic selves to work. From creating “belonging micro moments” of true human connection for individuals, to taking it to scale across a large organization, Pat gives you the tools to make a culture of belonging your organization’s superpower.

Companies spend millions on customer experience journey mapping, but rarely pay the same attention to their employee experience. According to Pat Wadors, if you really want to create a healthy, successful company that can scale, focus on your employees.

In this enlightening talk, Pat shares the five key elements to the employee experience journey and how organizations of any size, in any industry, can elevate and enhance them to boost engagement, retain, recruit, and impact the bottom line. Noting that managers can have more impact on our mental health than our primary care doctors, she also discusses the phenomenon of the “bruised employee” and the critical role that leaders and managers play in the employee experience.

Combining data with storytelling and analytics with real-world examples, Pat guides audiences through the key points of the employee journey, detailing challenges and highlighting key opportunities, every step of the way.

Becoming an Agile, Relevant, and Authentic Leader

Describe Pat Wadors as a “transformational leader” and she’ll quickly tell you that she’d rather be known as an agile, relevant, and authentic one. Instead of focusing on “change management,” she says, we should instead be focused on bringing more agility to how we lead. Agile leaders are realistic, inclusive, pragmatic, calm, and go with the flow of reality.

They have a growth mindset and understand the power of “yet,”—as in, “We haven’t done that yet.” To become more agile, we must become more humble, more courageous, more inclusive, and nimble enough to not only adapt and change, but to grow and care. Pat walks audiences through what it means to be truly agile, relevant, and authentic, including creating your own “Scorecard” as your guide.

Warning that those who are not agile cap their own growth, and organizations who rely on old standards face atrophy, Pat provides real tools and a path forward that audiences can leverage to both empower their own professional growth and to spark change in their team and organization.

The Most Important Tool You Can Develop for Both Career and Life

  • What do you stand for?
  • What are your guiding principles, your values, your motivators?
  • Who do you want to be, regardless of what everyone else is doing around you?
  • When you look at yourself each day in the mirror, how do you determine if you’re living up to who you really want to be?

According to Pat Wadors, check your “Scorecard,” the most important tool you can leverage to become the leader of your personal and professional life. In this game-changing talk, Pat shows you how to develop your own Scorecard by determining what matters most to you and  the actions necessary to get there.

She also shares her own personal journey of achieving her own potential as a leader, and how finally being herself inspired others to also bring their own authentic selves and true potential to work. Bringing decades of real-world corporate HR expertise to an inspirational and empowering experience worthy of Brené Brown or Mel Robbins, Pat Wadors’ “Scorecard” will forever change the way you think about achieving your best self and the life you really want.

Talent Short Bio

Pat Wadors is a globally respected thought leader in organizational culture, employee engagement, and human-centered leadership. With decades of experience at the highest levels of global business, she is widely recognized for transforming workplace cultures through inclusive, people-first strategies that align employee well-being with business outcomes.

Pat has served as Chief People Officer at industry-leading organizations including LinkedIn and UKG, where she played a pivotal role in shaping cultures centered on belonging, trust, and high performance. Her leadership experience across technology and enterprise environments gives her rare, practical insight into the real challenges facing modern organizations.

As a keynote speaker, Pat blends data-driven strategy with empathy and authenticity. She is a leading advocate for belonging as a business strategy, moving beyond traditional diversity and inclusion frameworks to create environments where employees feel valued, heard, and empowered to do their best work. Her talks explore leadership accountability, employee experience, and the evolving expectations of today’s workforce, including remote and hybrid work realities.

Pat Wadors is a renowned thought leader in organizational culture, employee engagement, and human-centered leadership. With decades of experience shaping workplace environments at leading global companies, she has earned a reputation for transforming corporate cultures and championing inclusive, people-first strategies. As a sought-after keynote speaker, she brings deep expertise, actionable insights, and a compelling vision for the future of work.

Her approach blends data-driven strategies with an empathetic understanding of what truly motivates employees, making her an influential voice in the world of HR and leadership development. Whether speaking at executive summits or industry conferences, Pat inspires audiences with innovative frameworks that drive engagement, productivity, and long-term business success.

Pat Wadors has built a distinguished career at the intersection of technology, human resources, and leadership. As the Chief People Officer at multiple high-profile organizations, including LinkedIn and UKG, she has played a pivotal role in shaping company cultures that prioritize inclusivity, well-being, and employee satisfaction. Her tenure in these roles has provided her with firsthand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing today’s workplaces, making her a trusted advisor to executives and HR professionals alike.

Throughout her career, Pat Wadors has been a leading advocate for belonging as a business strategy—a concept that extends beyond diversity and inclusion to create work environments where employees feel valued, heard, and empowered to do their best work. Her expertise spans a broad spectrum, from developing leadership programs that foster authentic engagement to leveraging AI and technology to enhance workplace culture.

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#PatWadors #EmployeeEngagement #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #HR #BelongingAtWork #KeynoteSpeaker

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