Named one of Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women by the Australian Financial Review, she has delivered a Peace Charter to the Dalai Lama, was Sir Richard Branson’s nominee for Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List’ of Future Game Changers to watch and was awarded the US Embassy’s Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Leadership Excellence in 2019.
Having interviewed the likes of Barack Obama, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Branson, Billie Jean-King, Condoleezza Rice, Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and the world’s first humanoid robot Sophia, Holly fights complexity with curiosity, apathy with empowerment and fear with fact.
As a Fulbright scholar and Harvard Kennedy School Class of ’21 fellow, Holly is a recipient of the prestigious Anne Wexler Public Policy Scholarship, allowing her to action social and economic inclusion by connecting people with the decisions that affect their lives. Having released her book The Leading Edge, Holly helps people harness their own potential to lead by HOLLY RANSOM asking better questions, thinking beyond biased answers and building collective momentum for change. The Leading Edge is part of Holly’s broader belief that w e need to democratise leadership learning and break open elite leadership discourse to fire up every individual to catalyse change.
Holly was identified early as a dynamic thought leader, asked to Co- Chair the G20 Youth Summit in 2014, the Unite Nations Coalition of Young Women Entrepreneurs in 2016, and becoming the youngest Director ever to be appointed to an Australian Football Club, the mighty Port Adelaide. Holly’s podcast ‘Coffee Pods’ was named in the top ten business podcasts to listen to by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2018, and Holly has been recognised as a LinkedIn Influencer and a must-read content producer by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Herself an accomplished company director, Holly has compressed a power-packed career into a decade, spanning corporate, non-profit and public sectors. As founder and CEO of consulting firm Emergent, Holly has led real-world results with clients such as P&G, Microsoft, Virgin, Cisco and KPMG.
Holly has also been a regular on the likes of The Drum and QandA. As a proud champion for diversity and inclusion, Holly is Chair of Pride Cup Australia, a non-profit organisation (and movement) devoted to challenging LGBTI+ discrimination within sporting clubs – and create welcoming and supportive environments for LGBTI participation and fans. A two-time Ironwoman, Holly loves to cook, dance and sing… despite her complete lack of talent at all three.