Women Keynote Speaker
Women in Leadership Keynote Speaker
She didn't inherit a seat at the table. She built her own — and sold it.
Shama Hyder built and led Zen Media for 17 years before selling the company. She is a 2026 TIME100 Creators Leaders honoree, an author, and a Professor at Link School of Business.
Her women-in-leadership keynotes focus on practical decisions, frameworks, and timing for navigating career and organizational change.
Shama Hyder for Women in Leadership Audiences
Shama brings the perspective of a founder who built and led a company for 17 years before selling it. Her keynotes connect that experience to practical frameworks for leadership, visibility, and decision-making.
She built and sold a company after 17 years. That story is her credential.
Shama built and led Zen Media for 17 years before selling the company. She brings that operating perspective to conversations about leadership, technology change, and entrepreneurship.
Her work spans business, education, and publishing.
Shama is a 2026 TIME100 Creators Leaders honoree and Professor at Link School of Business. She is the author of The Applied AI Business Playbook, Momentum, and The Zen of Social Media Marketing.
She advises leaders at major organizations.
Shama advises leaders at Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, and JPMorgan Chase and has delivered keynotes for EMAAR and SEMA. That work informs her perspective on leadership and technology change.
Her Strategic Urgency framework was built from her own high-stakes decisions.
For women leaders, timing can carry added weight when access to opportunity, sponsorship, and organizational support is uneven. Shama's framework offers a concrete system for reading those moments and acting with conviction.
Women in Leadership Keynote Topics
Shama’s team can tailor a keynote to the event, audience, and organizational context. These are the core frameworks available for women's leadership conferences, corporate ERG events, and professional association women's tracks.
Building Your Strategic Urgency — How Women Leaders Know When to Move and When to Wait
Women’s LeadershipCareer decisions often depend on timing, not just whether to act. Shama's Strategic Urgency framework helps women leaders read signals, distinguish opportunity from distraction, and act without overreacting to noise. Grounded in her experience making high-stakes decisions as a founder, the keynote is designed for women's leadership conferences, corporate women's initiatives, and senior women's forums.
The Founder Mindset — What Running a Company for 17 Years Teaches You About Leadership
Founder + Entrepreneurship AudiencesThere are things you can only learn by running something. How to make resource allocation decisions with incomplete information. How to hold a team together during a crisis. How to stay strategic when the operational pressure is relentless. How to know when to hold a position and when to pivot. Shama shares the specific leadership lessons from 17 years as a founder and CEO, filtered through the lens of what is actually useful for women in senior leadership roles inside large organizations and for women building their own companies. Concrete, honest, and directly applicable. Not a biography talk. A leadership framework talk that happens to be grounded in real biographical experience.
Visibility as a Leadership Strategy — Why the Best Leaders Build Audiences, Not Just Resumes
Career Advancement + Personal BrandExternal visibility can strengthen recognition, credibility, and negotiating leverage for women leaders. Shama shows audiences how to build it through thought leadership, speaking, publishing, and a strategic social presence.
The Future Belongs to the Decisive — Women, AI, and the Next Era of Business Leadership
AI + Future of WorkAI can lower some traditional barriers while creating new risks. Shama helps women leaders identify where their judgment, relationships, and strategic skills can create advantage during the transition.
Women’s Leadership Event Resources
Choose the focus that serves your audience best.
Explore women’s leadership, female-keynote, corporate ERG, leadership, scope, and availability options.
Women’s Leadership and ERG Resources
Planning resources for ERG and women-in-leadership events
Review topic fit, credentials, scope, and availability in one place.
Shama advises leaders at Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, and JPMorgan Chase and has delivered keynotes for EMAAR and SEMA.
Women in Leadership Events and Audience Types
Women in Leadership Conferences
Women’s leadership events that connect founder experience with practical frameworks for senior audiences.
Corporate Women's Initiatives
Internal programs for women leaders. Shama’s team can tailor the keynote to the industry, organizational culture, and career stage of the audience.
Professional Association Women's Tracks
The women's track at major industry association conferences — financial services, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. Shama adapts the framework and examples to the specific industry's dynamics for women leaders.
ERG Keynotes
Employee Resource Group events for women’s networks, with frameworks for visibility, positioning, and career timing.
University Women in Business Events
Business school and university events that connect founder experience with practical leadership tools.
PE and Finance Women's Forums
Women's forums at private equity firms, investment banks, and financial services organizations where the audience includes partners, managing directors, and senior women navigating specific advancement dynamics in male-dominated industries.
Women's leadership keynote options
A women’s leadership keynote grounded in real operating experience
Shama tailors the keynote for women’s leadership programs, ERGs, inclusion initiatives, executive audiences, broader leadership agendas, and company events.
Women’s leadership booking details
Prepare your women’s leadership keynote inquiry
Clarify whether the event needs a women-in-leadership program, a broader female keynote, fee information, or an availability review.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Shama Hyder's perspective on women in leadership unique?
Shama built and led Zen Media for 17 years before selling the company. Her perspective comes from the decisions involved in building, leading, and exiting a business. She is a 2026 TIME100 Creators Leaders honoree.
What is the tone of Shama's women in leadership keynote?
Motivating and real, Shama is direct, concrete, and framework-driven. She gives women leaders decision-making frameworks and practical tools they can use immediately, while addressing challenges that often go unspoken in senior leadership.
Are Shama's women in leadership keynotes suitable for mixed-gender audiences?
Mixed-gender audiences can use the same frameworks to support women's advancement as a business priority.
Can Shama customize her keynote for our specific organization or industry?
Shama’s team can tailor a keynote to the organization, industry, audience, and event goals. A pre-event briefing can help identify relevant examples and framework applications.
Is Shama a fit for ERG keynote events for women?
Shama offers women’s leadership keynotes for corporate ERG and leadership audiences, with frameworks for visibility, positioning, and career timing.
Is Shama a fit for women’s leadership events?
Yes. Shama speaks at women's leadership conferences, corporate women's initiatives, ERG events, and professional association programs. Her keynotes are framework-driven, covering Strategic Urgency, visibility as a leadership strategy, and founder decision-making rather than generic empowerment content.
How do we check availability for a women in leadership event?
For a current keynote proposal, share the event date, audience, location, format, and goals through Shama's availability form.
What is the booking process?
Submit an inquiry at shamahyder.com/check-availability or email team@shamahyder.com with your event date, location, audience size, and format requirements. Her team can confirm availability and explain next steps.
Related Topics
Book Shama for Your Women in Leadership Event
Contact the team to discuss availability and possible customization for the audience, format, location, and event goals.
Check AvailabilityOr email team@shamahyder.com