Ambassador Nancy Brinker

Drawing on her 30-year experience transforming a small living-room operation into a billion-dollar global network against breast cancer, Ambassador Nancy Brinker shares the leadership lessons that every executive and employee needs to know to build their company, energize their teams, strengthen their brand and institutionalize a Culture of Innovation that allows organizations to stay ahead of the competition and achieve world-class results. Just as her passion to find a cure for breast cancer created the world’s largest network of survivors and activists fighting the disease, Ambassador Brinker motivates corporate audiences in every industry and sector to excel in “The Art of Seeing the Invisible”—pursuing bold goals that may seem invisible and making them inevitable.

Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, one of Biography Magazine’s “25 Most Powerful Women in America,” Ladies Home Journal’s “100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century,” and TIME Magazine’s 2008 “100 Most Influential People,” Ambassador Nancy Brinker energizes women executives, entrepreneurs and business owners to overcome the unique challenges facing female business leaders and seize the unprecedented opportunities of today’s business world. Drawing on her own experience of founding, building and guiding the world’s largest network of breast cancer survivors and activists, Ambassador Brinker inspires women to be “Brave Enough” to pursue their professional ambitions, persevere in the face of barriers and become mentors and models to the next generation of women leaders.

A former member of the President’s Cancer Panel, the United Nations World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control and one of America’s foremost patient advocates for a quarter century, Ambassador Nancy Brinker addresses the key challenges facing the delivery of affordable, accessible healthcare in the United States and around the world today. Drawing on her pioneering experience of transforming the way the world talks about and treats breast cancer—and warning how the baby boom will become an unprecedented “cancer boom”—Ambassador Brinker argues that today’s “Patient Empowerment Revolution” will only succeed if patient-centered care becomes the central organizing philosophy of a 21st Century healthcare system.

Since she founded Susan G. Komen®, Nancy Brinker has been the leading force behind the revolution of cultural awareness that has made Americans able to talk publicly and passionately about breast cancer. In her world travels, she has spread that message to other countries struggling to combat cancer. From a background in business and marketing, she delivers a powerful message calling on her own personal history of creating one of the most recognizable and momentous marketing campaigns in the American culture: Race for the Cure. Her life’s work has both opened people’s eyes and saved people’s lives, and she shows how organizations can apply the same concepts to their mission.

Nancy Brinker has enjoyed a lifetime of success and shares her mind-body secrets that she credits with the full-spectrum wellness approach that got her there. Her success story is well known, from building a billion dollar enterprise to fighting breast cancer, to personally battling and defeating cancer multiple times. It’s no wonder that, at 68, she boxes and works out with a personal trainer on a regular basis. She says she’s never had such great energy and excitement for life, a mindset she credits with much of her success. With audiences and corporate America always seeking that personal and professional competitive edge, Nancy Brinker’s message – for creating visions and facing and overcoming the challenges and obstacles that arise – couldn’t be more timely or in-demand.

One of the nation’s foremost “social entrepreneurs” and a global activist who has inspired millions around the world, Ambassador Nancy Brinker empowers audiences of all ages and backgrounds to embrace “The Power of One”—the ability of every individual to make a difference in their communities, companies, countries and the world. Drawing on her remarkable life experience as a breast cancer survivor, catalyst of an international health movement, U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Chief of Protocol, Nancy Brinker shares how her mind-body approach and unique lessons for personal and professional fulfillment can help every individual lead a life of both success and significance.

As one of the world’s foremost cancer advocates, a three-decade cancer survivor and catalyst of the global grassroots breast cancer movement, Ambassador Nancy Brinker inspires cancer patients and their families to win their personal war with this devastating disease while urging the international community to recognize and confront the coming “cancer tsunami.” Warning that the global cancer burden will more than double in the coming decades—with perhaps 27 million cancer cases every year—Ambassador Brinker calls for an unprecedented and urgent international campaign to save the lives of millions around the world.

After more than a quarter century, Susan G. Komen® has evolved into the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Nancy Brinker shares the successes and continued challenges in the fight against cancer since she began the global breast cancer movement in 1982. Brinker describes how the organization has pioneered cause-related marketing, created Komen Affiliates serving the breast health needs of millions in their communities, and developed educational tools to reach people in more than 200 countries. As the world’s largest source of private funds for breast cancer research and community outreach programs, Brinker’s organization has seen more than $2.2 billion invested to date. She shares with audiences the latest news on the breast cancer front, the most promising developments at Susan G. Komen, and the inspiring stories that touched lives all over the world.

As the founder of one of the most recognizable philanthropic organizations in the country, Nancy Brinker has partnered with countless corporations and associations to increase awareness and funding for cancer research. Calling on her experience connecting people and companies to important social issues, she understands the integral role corporations can play in the world of social responsibility, and she inspires individuals, audiences, and entire organizations to work harder, to give something back, and to reinvent their reputations by incorporating philanthropy into their day-to-day operations.