Caroline Casey

Founder of Valuable500, Global Advocate for Inclusion and Motivational Speaker

The system shaker driving the transformational change needed to create a more inclusive world.

Biography

Caroline Casey, Founder of The Valuable 500, operates at the frontier of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). She is frequently invited to contribute at ground-breaking events such TED, Davos, World Economic Forum, One Young World and Skoll.

Comfortably straddling the worlds of business and activism, she has the ear of business and access to the world’s largest community of CEOs to shape a society where everyone is free to be fully themselves.

Caroline has a unique ability to bring together the intersection of head and heart. Whether she is being interviewed or working as a panellist or speaker at an event, she moves

people to accept themselves and others, make positive changes, realise their own value, and be vulnerable and authentic.

Her passion and drive are rooted in a very unique personal story of trying to fit in with a secret. As a former management consultant and daughter of a successful entrepreneur, Caroline recognised the power of business to make change happen. Today her work is catalysing business leaders to take full ownership of their inclusion agenda and to shed the constraints that stop inclusion from becoming a reality.

Topics

Diversity & Inclusion:  the one-dimensional approach is gone

The D&I agenda is growing and evolving, fast. Caroline has the ear of the biggest CEO community in the world and leverages that knowledge to highlight and share the complexities and challenges of keeping up with those changes. The reality is that the one-dimensional approach is gone. Today, the scene is being disrupted by intersectionality and multi-dimensionality; it’s about inclusion, equity, diversity, belonging, and more.  

In this talk, Caroline paints a vivid picture of what businesses need to look out for and what potential directions they might take. Just as she has done with audiences at Davos, One Young World, Clinton Initiative and others, she inspires people to review how, as both individuals and organisations, we can do better. 

Motivational:  It’s the cracks where the light gets in.  There is no Hollywood ending.  

Leonard Cohen’s lyric ‘It’s the cracks where the light gets in’ is Caroline’s mantra to help others see the good in all of their flaws. In this talk, Caroline shares her life story to help illustrate how every experience can lead to something better if only you allow it. She calls it ‘phosphorescence thinking’—the idea that you need the black to see the light. 

Exploring the power of pain and difficulty to drive personal and professional growth, she stimulates audiences to connect with themselves and believe that they have every right to be their authentic selves. She offers a new take on ‘resilience’, showing us how each event that occurs in life changes you and that you can use those changes, however small, to move forward with the confidence to adapt—and develop what she calls ‘sustainable grit’. 

Leadership:  The relationship between Authentic Leadership and Self-Acceptance 

Authenticity and trust are more important than ever for leaders today. Caroline believes you cannot speak to authenticity if you do not accept who you are—the shadow and the light.  In this empowering talk, she paints a picture of leadership that is all about taking personal responsibility in order to engender greater trust, loyalty and buy-in. Using her own story as an example, she shares how her own empathy, vision, decision-making and ability to energise others improved remarkably once she consciously embarked on the journey to accepting herself.  

Leaders, she argues, need to acknowledge what Caroline calls ‘the power of grey’—the idea that most of us, most of the time, operate somewhere in between polarities of good and bad, success and failure. Being at either extreme is very limiting. 

In the talk, Caroline explores some of the key elements of self-acceptance and how they made her a better leader

  • Cultivating Self-Compassion
  • Letting Go of Guilt 
  • Learning to Forgive Ourselves

Testimonials

“Thank you for delivering such a wonderful keynote on Global Accessibility Awareness Day last Thursday. Your passion and authenticity really moved us and resonated with our audience. Your willingness to share your personal journey helped to make the connection to our mission and ways that people might take action. We truly believe your talk helped us understand the power of inclusion in business and how inclusion is everyone’s business.  You are a true professional and it was a joy working with you on this presentation. Thank you for inspiring our organization. ” Dean Barker, Vice President – Optum Digital’s User Experience Design Studio, UnitedHealth Group

“Please can you pass on my sincere thanks to Caroline for speaking to our colleagues at Brit today.  She was superb and such a brilliant speaker.  Between her and Ade it was the perfect mix.” Lorraine Denny, Chief Engagement Officer,  Brit Insurance

“Caroline did amazingly on Monday, we were delighted to have her and she really did give it her all. Not a dry eye in the house” – Louise O’Dwyer, Director, Talent Programs, EMEA Salesforce

“We want to thank you for such an inspiring keynote session and for attending our conference and dinner. You are such a vibrant, smart, funny, inspiring person and it has been an honour to work with you.  Our evaluations mentioned you as a highlight of the Summit, and many of the attendants wanted you to come back again next year.” – Erika Augustinsson, Head of Communication and Policy, Forum for social innovation Sweden, Malmö University

“Caroline was AMAZING with her keynote and Q&A live webcast today. We are receiving so many compliments from attendees. We’ll be sending you an “official thank you” soon. It’s truly been a pleasure working with both of you (and the very lovely Louise)  and the immensely talented, gifted Caroline. What a speaker! What a leader!” Virtual Optum Conference, USA, May 2021 

“I am 20 years in Stryker and have been to many meetings with guest speakers, and I can honestly say that I have never seen a reaction to a presenter like I did today.  Caroline was simply magnificent!!!! She was at her brilliant best. What a beautiful person. On behalf of every single person that was in the room today, can you pass on our sincere thanks to her.  I have a feeling this is not the last time that she will be asked to present at a Stryker event.  She was brilliant!  Thank you so much!!! – Gearoid Walsh, Senior Manager, Advanced Operations, Stryker.  January 2020

“Caroline spoke at our Annual Conference in May 2018. Her talk was thought provoking, emotional and inspiring and she had the audience completely enthralled for the duration. She was a true professional and an absolute pleasure to deal with. The feedback we have received from delegates following the event has been extremely positive.” – Karin Lanigan,  Chartered Accountants Ireland

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