Why Ryan Estis Is a Good Fit

• Strong alignment with Pella’s culture pillars — Ryan’s work centers around helping organizations build cultures rooted in accountability, adaptability, courageous leadership, and high-performance execution.
• Deep industry relevance — Ryan has worked extensively with organizations including Andersen / Renewal by Andersen and Marvin, giving him firsthand understanding of the building products, manufacturing, and dealer/distributor ecosystem.
• Business-first leadership perspective — As a former Fortune 500 Chief Revenue Officer and strategic advisor, Ryan brings practical insight grounded in real-world leadership, growth, and organizational transformation.  
• Expert on navigating change and uncertainty — His keynote content helps leaders embrace change, build resilience, strengthen culture, and lead teams effectively in rapidly evolving environments.  
• Highly actionable and research-driven — Ryan blends compelling storytelling with practical frameworks leaders can immediately apply to improve communication, accountability, collaboration, and performance.  
• Focus on human-centered leadership — His message strongly reinforces Pella’s emphasis on “Caring Boldly” by helping leaders create trust, psychological safety, honest feedback cultures, and stronger team engagement.  
• Equips leaders to “Learn Rapidly” — Ryan’s work emphasizes growth mindset, adaptability, continuous learning, and turning change into opportunity.  
• Supports “Driving Results” through accountability and ownership — His leadership philosophy helps organizations unlock discretionary effort, improve alignment, and elevate execution across teams.  
• Exceptional executive-stage presence — Ryan is consistently recognized as one of the top leadership keynote speakers in the industry and has worked with many of the world’s leading brands.

‍Recommended Keynotes:

1) Human-Centered Leadership: Leading High-Performance Teams in a Forever Changed World

Today’s leaders are operating in a world defined by constant disruption: artificial intelligence reshaping work, distributed teams redefining collaboration, and unrelenting pressure to deliver results while protecting culture, engagement, and well-being.

The demands of this environment require a new leadership model.

The modern knowledge worker doesn’t want to be managed. They want to be developed, supported and inspired. They expect leaders who invest in growth, foster psychological safety, communicate with clarity, and connect daily work to a meaningful purpose. Yet according to Gartner, fewer than half of today’s managers feel prepared for this expanded role.

Human-Centered Leadership is how organizations close that gap.

This high-impact leadership keynote reframes the job of leadership by shifting the focus from managing outcomes to unlocking contribution, ownership and sustainable high performance. When leaders create the conditions for people to thrive, results follow.

Ryan Estis — bestselling author, former Fortune 500 chief revenue officer, and trusted adviser to hyper-growth organizations — is at the forefront of the Human-Centered Growth movement transforming the future of work, leadership and organizational culture.

Blending compelling storytelling with research-backed insights and actionable frameworks, Ryan equips leaders to build trust-based, psychologically safe, high-performance teams that thrive in complexity, adapt to change, and lead confidently in the age of complexity.

Audience Outcomes:

Participants leave with clarity, confidence, and practical tools to immediately elevate their leadership impact:

1. Be the Catalyst: Develop a future-ready leadership mindset. Convert clarity into alignment, potential into capability and intention into decisive action.
2. Start With Self: Strengthen leadership presence through self-awareness, emotional intelligence and resilience — creating the conditions for trust and contribution.
3. Unleash Human Potential: Move beyond managing activity to coaching capability. Empower ownership, accountability and discretionary effort across teams.
4. Champion Culture: Leverage trust, psychological safety and collaboration as force multipliers that fuel sustained excellence.
5. Communicate With Courage: Align without controlling. Unite teams around shared purpose, priorities and performance expectations.
6. Craft a Personal Leadership Vision: Embrace leadership as a responsibility. Drive results while leaving a meaningful, lasting impact on people.
7. Momentum Through Harmony: Synchronize business objectives with employee well-being and stakeholder value for long-term success.
8. The 8:01 Moment: Walk away with a clear action plan for the most important minute of the week — 8:01 Monday morning — when leadership intention becomes leadership mobilized execution.

The Future of Growth Is Human

In a world of accelerating technology, rising expectations and relentless change, one truth remains clear:

Companies grow when people do.

Human-Centered Leadership shows leaders how to build agile teams, unlock human potential and deliver extraordinary results — today and into the future.

This keynote has been approved for strategic, continuing education credit through the Human Resources Certification Institute (604599) and the Society of Human Resources Management (22-Z9JFU). Ryan can further customize the curriculum for a Human Resources-specific audience to focus on elevating the HR value proposition and opportunity for impact.

2) Unleash Your Inner Superhero: Maximizing Your Potential to Create Meaningful Impact

In a world where the pace of change is relentless and skills quickly become obsolete, the true power lies within each of us, waiting to be unleashed. Ryan Estis—an acclaimed personal development keynote speaker—invites you to embark on a journey of self-discovery, tapping into your hidden potential and igniting your personal power.

This pivotal moment of transformation is an invitation to unearth your unique gifts and experience the deep fulfillment that comes from making a meaningful impact on others.

Ryan's powerful message explores the realms of purpose, productivity, and peak performance while emphasizing the importance of staying present for the people and experiences that truly matter. As a dynamic keynote speaker on personal development, Ryan empowers audiences to cultivate growth, clarity, and momentum in both their personal and professional lives.

It's time to unlock your inner superhero and embrace the limitless possibilities of human-centered growth through an energizing personal development keynote experience.

Audience Outcomes:

1. Self-Discovery and Awareness: Gain a deeper understanding of your own unique strengths, talents, and potential. Learn how self-awareness is the foundation for personal growth and harnessing your inner superhero.
2. Adaptability and Skill Development: Explore strategies for staying relevant and adaptable in a rapidly changing world. Discover how to acquire new competencies and skills to thrive in evolving industries and environments—insights that define top personal development keynote speakers.
3. Purpose and Meaning: Delve into the concept of purpose and how it can be a driving force in both your personal and professional life. Learn how aligning your actions with your sense of purpose can lead to greater fulfillment.
4. Peak Performance: Uncover the principles and practices that lead to peak performance. Explore how productivity and excellence can be achieved while maintaining a focus on what truly matters.
5. Human-Centered Growth: Understand the importance of a human-centered approach in your personal and professional journey. Explore how prioritizing the well-being and growth of yourself and others can lead to greater success and harmony.

Why Heather McGowan Is a Good Fit

• Expert on navigating change and the future of work — Heather is one of the leading voices helping organizations adapt, innovate, and thrive in rapidly evolving business environments. Her work strongly aligns with Pella’s focus on resilience, adaptability, and “Learning Rapidly.”
• Business-forward leadership perspective — Heather works with executive teams and major organizations to help leaders rethink how they lead, learn, and drive performance in an era of constant disruption.
• Strong alignment with Pella’s culture pillars — Her message reinforces courageous leadership, accountability, agility, and building cultures that can continuously evolve and improve.
• Focus on turning uncertainty into opportunity — Heather helps leaders move beyond fear of change by embracing experimentation, adaptability, and human-centered leadership.
• Highly practical and strategic — Her keynotes combine research, business insight, future trends, and actionable leadership strategies that resonate strongly with executive audiences.
• Excellent fit for leadership retreat environments — Heather’s content encourages organizations to think long-term while equipping leaders with practical frameworks for today’s challenges.
• Trusted advisor to global organizations — Her client roster includes companies such as Google, Microsoft, Citi, and Autodesk.

Recommended Keynote:

Customization

Every talk is tailored to your audience’s industry, challenges, and goals. Heather frequently integrates topics such as:

• Workforce evolution & generational change (Gen Z & Alpha)
• Retention and belonging
• Leadership Trust, Psychological Safety + Accountability
• Adaptability and Learning Organizations
• AI, automation, and the future of human capability
• The loneliness epidemic as a performance lever

She can combine elements across talk frames or create a unique focus for your event.

1) CLEAR ON PURPOSE: Turning Purpose into Performance Through a Shared Vision

Purpose is a performance driver. Heather shows how meaning and belonging create intrinsic motivation that outperforms perks.

In an era where success flows from meaningful connection, we thrive through deep listening, empathy that bridges divides, and dialogue that transforms conflict into shared purpose. By nurturing psychological safety and bold ideas, we unlock our collective potential through

THE SPARK OF HOPE THAT ILLUMINATES THE PATH FORWARD.

The ability to bridge divides through emotional intelligence and skilled communication may be our most valuable professional competency in today's interconnected world. When organizational purpose aligns with human potential, extraordinary things happen.

In this inspirational keynote, Heather reveals how purpose can become your organization’s most powerful performance driver. Through compelling research and real-world examples, she demonstrates how a shared vision can create the trust, belonging, and motivation needed to transform individual potential into collective impact. By getting clear on purpose, we don't just adapt to change—we shape the future.

The audience will leave able to:

• Connect daily work to meaningful outcomes
• Align teams around a vision that moves people
• Reduce turnover through belonging

2) Solve Tomorrow’s Problems: Harness Human Ingenuity to Navigate What’s Next

Think organizations can't change quickly? History proves otherwise.

When naysayers said "it can't be done," humans accomplished the impossible—in weeks, not years. Each pivotal moment reminds us of humanity’s most underestimated asset: our ability to adapt in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

In this perspective-shifting keynote, Heather challenges the myth that we resist change using unforgettable stories about a mop, a burrito, and a hermit crab to demonstrate how we can tap into our natural curiosity and hardwired drive to collaborate to see and shape what’s next.

Drawing from her bestselling books “The Adaptation Advantage” and “The Empathy Advantage,” Heather reveals how leading organizations thrive when they place adaptability at their core, allowing them to find breakthrough opportunities where others least expect them.

The audience will leave with:

• A powerful understanding of how to frame the right question
• Practical approaches to optimize how they adapt to new realities
• Clear frameworks for mapping the past to navigate the future
• The leadership mindset shifts that guide team success in uncharted territories

A keynote that reframes change as opportunity, giving sales teams the courage and tools to innovate.

Why Mike Lee Is a Good Fit

Growing up in a small town in central Wisconsin, with a grandfather who worked both in a steel factory and on the farm, Mike understands the grit, humility, and resilience that have shaped Midwestern companies like Pella for the past century. For Pella’s 100th Anniversary Leadership Retreat, Mike Lee will deliver a keynote that weaves together timeless Midwest values with progressive leadership strategies.

• Direct alignment with Pella’s culture pillars — Mike’s work focuses on helping leaders build resilience, accountability, adaptability, and intentional leadership in fast-moving, high-pressure environments.
• Bridges performance and people leadership — His message combines elite-performance principles with mindful leadership practices, reinforcing both “Driving Results” and “Caring Boldly.”  
• Highly relevant for today’s leadership challenges — Mike speaks directly to navigating distraction, uncertainty, burnout, and rapid change while staying focused, engaged, and connected as a team.  
• Strong business applicability — While rooted in stories from working with NBA stars like Steph Curry and Joel Embiid, Mike translates those lessons into practical leadership tools for corporate teams and executives.  
• Supports “Learning Rapidly” through growth mindset and adaptability — Mike teaches leaders how to embrace discomfort, remain coachable, and respond resiliently to evolving demands.  
• Focus on presence and accountability — His keynote content emphasizes intentional action, ownership, emotional intelligence, and showing up fully in moments that matter most.  
• Modern and highly engaging delivery style — Mike blends storytelling, neuroscience, psychology, and leadership strategy into an experience that resonates strongly with today’s executive and leadership audiences.  
• Trusted by major brands and organizations — His clients include organizations such as IBM, Cisco, Morgan Stanley, and SHRM.  

Recommended Keynotes:

1) New Rules For the Future of Leadership

The future of leadership is more human than ever. In 2020 challenges lingering in the background like mental health, purpose, and belonging immediately rose to the surface. The Great Resignation of 2021 highlighted that traditional solutions like perks and salary increases fell short of addressing deep-seated organizational challenges. Today, the adoption of AI, remote work environments, and the looming recession are front and center for leaders. The impact of Covid changed how we work, our relationship to work, and the expectations of leaders across all industries. And senior leaders, emerging leaders, and leaders without a title need to be equipped with internal skills to navigate this new world of work.

This program is designed to equip leaders with the purpose-driven, future-focused, mindfully aware, and heart-centered leadership skills to meet the moment and prepare for what’s next. These research-backed competencies are proven to elevate engagement, attract top talent, improve well-being, and create a culture of belonging. Ultimately helping organizations sustain peak performance, drive growth, and create their future in the new economy.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

_{1 - IGNITE YOUR PURPOSE: A}ctivate personal and organizational purpose to drive employee engagement and build a legacy.

2 - APPLY MINDFULNESS: Utilize practical mindfulness skills to elevate high-performance and well-being.

3 - OPTIMIZE YOUR TALENT: Attract, engage, and retain top talent to give yourself an edge in an ultra-competitive world.

4 - BUILD YOUR CULTURE: Create a culture of belonging and psychological safety through human-centric, heart-centered leadership.

TRANSFORMATION‍

By integrating these leadership competencies with cutting-edge research on the future of work, readers can position themselves to inspire, impact, and influence not only their teams and organizations but potentially the world at large.

THIS PROGRAM IS IDEAL FOR

• ‍Senior Leaders & HR Executives aiming to improve employee engagement, attract top talent, and build a purpose-driven, human-centric culture.‍
• Emerging Leaders & People Managers who are navigating the new demands of leadership like purpose, belonging, and well-being.‍
• Organizations Focused on Culture & Retention that want to implement research-backed strategies to create a culture of belonging, psychological safety, and peak performance.

Why Rashmi Airan Is a Good Fit

• Powerful leadership perspective rooted in real-world experience — Rashmi’s story of personal downfall, accountability, resilience, and rebuilding credibility gives her an exceptionally authentic voice on leadership, decision-making, ethics, and courage.
• Strong alignment with Pella’s culture pillars — Her message deeply reinforces courageous leadership, ownership, accountability, adaptability, and resilience in moments of pressure and uncertainty.
• Business-oriented and executive relevant — As a former attorney and business professional, Rashmi speaks directly to the kinds of leadership pressures, blind spots, and cultural challenges organizations face today.
• Focus on accountability and ethical leadership — Her keynotes help leaders understand how everyday decisions, culture, communication, and self-awareness shape trust, performance, and long-term organizational success.
• Encourages courageous conversations and growth through adversity — Rashmi challenges audiences to embrace discomfort, learn from mistakes, and use setbacks as catalysts for transformation and stronger leadership.
• Highly engaging storyteller with practical takeaways — Her presentations blend vulnerability, humor, leadership insight, and actionable lessons that resonate strongly with executive and leadership audiences.
• Excellent fit for culture and leadership retreats — Rashmi’s message inspires leaders to lead with integrity, resilience, and humanity while strengthening organizational trust and accountability.
• Trusted by major organizations and institutions — She has spoken for Fortune 500 companies, universities, and leadership organizations across industries.

THIS IS A CUSTOM KEYNOTE FOR PELLA PREPARED BY RASHMI

Rise and Hold: Leading with Clarity When the Pressure Is On

High performance culture doesn't collapse in one dramatic moment. It drifts. A hard conversation avoided. A standard quietly lowered. A decision made fast because the pressure demanded it. And then another. And another. Until the culture you built starts to look like something you no longer recognize.

At Pella, you build structures engineered to hold under the worst conditions. This keynote asks a harder question: are your leaders built the same way?

Senior leaders are operating inside one of the most complex leadership environments in modern business. The pace is relentless. The expectations are high. The margin for drift is zero. And yet most leaders have never been given a system for their thinking, only systems for their work.

That is exactly where this keynote begins.

Caring Boldly is not about being warm. It is about being willing. Willing to have the conversation that makes the room uncomfortable. Willing to hold someone accountable even when the relationship matters. Willing to say the true thing instead of the convenient thing. Rashmi shows leaders where empathy quietly becomes avoidance, and what it takes to close that gap with courage instead of comfort.

Learning Rapidly is not about celebrating failure. It is about staying clear enough to tell the difference between a calculated pivot and a rationalized retreat. Under pressure, smart leaders rationalize. They normalize. They convince themselves that adjusting the standard is the same as adapting to reality. Rashmi breaks down exactly how that drift begins and gives leaders the tools to stay anchored to growth without losing their footing.

Driving Results demands something most leadership frameworks never address: the ability to make principled decisions at speed without sacrificing ownership, urgency, or integrity. Accountability erodes when clarity disappears. Rashmi introduces the Clarity Loop, a four question decision framework that cuts through the noise, slows down reactive thinking, and gives leaders a repeatable system for reclaiming both focus and accountability in real time.

Drawing from her experience as a Wall Street dealmaker, Ivy League attorney, and someone who lived the personal consequences of decision drift firsthand, Rashmi delivers a keynote that is equal parts honest and practical. This is not a talk about resilience in theory. It is a masterclass in what Pella's culture pillars actually demand from a leader when the moment gets hard, and how to rise to meet it every single time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Recognize the early warning signs of decision drift before it erodes trust, performance, and culture.
2. Interrupt the patterns of rationalization and silence that masquerade as leadership under pressure.
3. Apply the Clarity Loop to make faster, cleaner decisions without sacrificing integrity or accountability.
4. Lead with the kind of courageous clarity that turns culture pillars from words on a wall into behaviors that hold.

STANDARD RECOMMENDED KEYNOTES:

1) RISE THROUGH IT®: Transform Hidden Prisons into Growth, Clarity, and Limitless Results

Struggle is not the exception. It is where transformation begins.

In this deeply personal and powerful keynote, Rashmi Airan takes audiences inside her journey from success to federal prison and the hard-earned lessons that followed. Through that experience, she reveals how the hidden mental prisons we carry, fear, perfectionism, judgment, and silence, shape our decisions and hold us back.

Grounded in her RISE Through It® framework, Reframe, Identify, Surrender, Evolve, this keynote gives audiences a clear path to confront those internal barriers and transform their hidden prisons into growth, clarity, and limitless results.

Audiences walk away ready to rise in their lives with greater resilience, courage, and the ability to turn struggle into strength, connection, and resurgence.

Audience Takeaways

• Break patterns of fear, perfectionism, and self doubt that limit growth
• Shift from reactive thinking to intentional, grounded responses
• Strengthen emotional resilience in the face of uncertainty and setbacks
• Unlock greater confidence and ownership in how you show up each day
• Create forward momentum even in the midst of challenge and change

2) RISE To Clarity: Human Judgment in Our High-Stakes Automated World.

AI is reshaping how decisions get made. Global uncertainty is rewriting the rules overnight. Teams are fractured, burned out, and operating in environments where trust is thin and expectations are high. And underneath all of it, leaders are carrying the weight of their own lives. Family. Health. Identity. The invisible pressures no one sees when the camera is on.This is the real decision environment. Not a case study. Not a simulation. This.And in this environment, the greatest risk is not making the wrong call. It is drifting into it, quietly, reasonably, one small compromise at a time.Rashmi Airan knows this from the inside. As a former Ivy League attorney and Wall Street dealmaker who walked straight into federal prison because of decision drift, she does not speak about pressure from a distance. She speaks from it.In this keynote, she brings that hard-earned intelligence into the room and equips leaders with the mental guardrails to navigate it all. AI-driven decisions. Geopolitical volatility. Team dynamics that can quietly erode culture. And the personal weight that leaders carry but rarely name.Because clarity does not come from removing pressure. It comes from building the judgment to lead through it.

Audience Takeaways

• Spot decision drift before it shapes your culture.
• Apply a proven framework for clarity under pressure.
• Lead teams through uncertainty without losing trust.
• Know where human judgment must override the algorithm.
• Carry personal pressure without letting it compromise your decisions.

Why Frankie Russo Is a Good Fit

• Strong business growth credibility — Frankie is an 8-time Inc. 500/5000 entrepreneur who has successfully scaled multiple companies, including growing his tech company 360ia by 60X before a Fortune 500 acquisition.  
• Direct alignment with Pella’s culture pillars — His work focuses on helping organizations create cultures rooted in courage, accountability, adaptability, curiosity, and continuous growth.  
• Expert on culture transformation and engagement — Frankie helps leaders move culture from aspirational values into observable daily behaviors that drive performance and organizational momentum.  
• Supports “Learning Rapidly” and resilience — His keynotes emphasize experimentation, growth mindset, adaptability, and learning through discomfort and change.  
• Blends inspiration with practical business application — Frankie combines entrepreneurial experience, leadership strategy, and actionable frameworks leaders can immediately apply within their organizations.  
• Highly engaging and modern presentation style — His keynotes are interactive, energetic, and designed to spark honest conversations around leadership, culture, innovation, and performance.  
• Excellent fit for leadership retreats — Frankie’s message helps organizations align people, purpose, and performance in ways that strengthen engagement and drive long-term results.
• Relevant perspective on navigating change and AI disruption — His newer work around AI and human potential helps leaders think proactively about the future of work while keeping culture and humanity at the center.  

Recommended Keynotes:

Every keynote is customized with real insights from your organization and can include interactive assessments or live word clouds to meet your audience where they are.

1)  EXTRAORDINARY ENGAGEMENT™: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE  LOVE  WHAT THEY DO

Explore the concept of embracing one's authentic self as the key to unlocking extraordinary engagement at work and in life. In this raw and honest session, Frankie Russo shares insights from his personal journey of overcoming addiction and rediscovering his true identity and purpose so you can learn how to fully embrace your unique qualities and passions to have a more fulfilling and impactful career. Through cultivating a culture of authenticity, imagination, and collaboration we all have the power to foster positive change within organizations. When everyone in an organization truly loves what they do, amazing outcomes emerge - teams are more motivated, productive and committed to the mission, leading to breakthrough results where passion, dedication and care shines through, leading to exceptional experiences and results that make a real difference.

‍
Audience Takeaways :

1. ‍The Power of Authenticity:   Embracing authenticity is essential for personal growth and creating a culture of extraordinary engagement. By staying true to one's unique qualities, individuals can build credibility, spark novel thinking, and inspire others to bring their whole selves to work. When teams feel empowered to be authentic, it fuels their passion and unlocks their full potential to serve others.‍
2. Curiosity and Experimentation:   Nurturing imagination and adopting an experimental mindset are crucial for driving creativity and overcoming challenges. Russo helps audiences tap into their inner child's boundless curiosity, celebrating progress over perfection and reframing failures as opportunities for growth. This mindset shift ignites fresh ideas and solutions that enhance service delivery.‍
3. Purpose-Driven Collaboration:  Collaboration and a sense of purpose are at the heart of extraordinary engagement. By focusing on serving others and making a positive impact, individuals can find deeper meaning in their work. Building alliances with like-minded colleagues and prioritizing purpose and social impact can help sustain motivation and energy in the face of resistance to change. When everyone is united around a shared purpose they love, organizations can make transformational change that uplifts the customers and communities they serve.

2) LOVE YOUR WEIRD

Take your organization into a space where they feel free to dig into their early passions in order to foster authenticity, imagination, and, in turn sustainable growth. Starting with a personalized dive into your unique organizational challenges, this keynote leaves your people inspired, poised to collaborate, ready to compete with the market, and on fire to create something new.

Audience Takeaways :

1. Harnessing Authenticity for Growth: Learn how encouraging employees to embrace their unique passions and talents can drive authenticity within your organization, leading to increased creativity and sustainable growth.
2. Fostering Imagination and Collaboration: Discover strategies to cultivate an environment where imagination thrives and collaboration is natural, helping your team to compete more effectively in the market.‍
3. Build A Culture of Continuous Growth: Gain tailored insights into addressing your organization's unique cultural challenges to harness the power of their collective ingenuity, leaving your team inspired and ready to execute innovative solutions that fuel continuous growth.

Why Rachel Druckenmiller Is a Good Fit

• Strong alignment with Pella’s culture pillars — Rachel’s work centers on helping organizations build cultures rooted in courage, accountability, resilience, human connection, and meaningful engagement.
• Business-focused leadership and culture expert — With a background in employee engagement, leadership development, and organizational culture strategy, Rachel helps leaders create environments where people and performance thrive together.
• Excellent fit for leadership retreat environments — Her keynotes are designed to energize leadership teams while providing practical frameworks around communication, trust, adaptability, resilience, and team accountability.
• Supports “Caring Boldly” through courageous leadership and connection — Rachel helps leaders strengthen trust, empathy, honest conversations, and authentic human connection across teams.
• Supports “Learning Rapidly” through adaptability and resilience — Her message encourages experimentation, growth mindset, continuous learning, and responding constructively to challenge and change.
• Supports “Driving Results” through engagement and accountability — Rachel emphasizes that organizations achieve stronger results when leaders create cultures where people feel valued, energized, and connected to purpose.
• Highly engaging and energetic presenter — Rachel is known for creating interactive, emotionally resonant experiences that leave audiences inspired and motivated to take action.
• Trusted by major organizations — Her clients include organizations such as Sherwin-Williams, Citizens Bank, and the American Heart Association.

Customized Keynote:

1) UNMUTED LEADERSHIP: Lead with Heart, Rise Through Disruption, Own Your Impact

Pella's culture has always been built on something most companies only talk about: the belief that showing up for people with care, honesty, and relentless commitment makes the biggest difference. Not just in what you build, but in who you become as a leader.

But what gets in the way is that even your most capable leaders are holding back. They're sitting on ideas they haven't shared, carrying doubts they haven't named or challenged, and waiting for a level of confidence they may never feel if they keep waiting for it to arrive on its own. Meanwhile, the people they lead are doing the exact same thing, waiting for someone to see them, believe in them, and say so out loud.

In this energizing and deeply personal keynote, Rachel draws on her own experience of burnout and being blindsided and nearly two decades inside and alongside high-performing organizations to help Pella leaders close the gap between how capable they are and how capable they believe themselves to be. The inside work is what makes the outside results possible, and you can only take people as far as you have gone yourself.

Leaders will leave with:

1. Clarity on the specific fear, self-doubt, or perfectionism that's been quietly holding them back and the conviction to stop waiting and start owning their contribution
2. A deeper understanding of the psychological trait that makes leaders more confident, resilient, and decisive under pressure and how to actively develop it
3. The ability to reframe disruption and setbacks as fuel for growth and a repeatable practice for doing it with their teams
4. A renewed sense of how to see the people they lead clearly and the courage to say what they see

Why Dave Sanderson Is a Good Fit

Pella was actually one of Dave's clients when he was with Oracle CPG in the mid-2000s, so he understands your business and the unique challenges companies like your's face. Dave’s new market strategy is especially aligned with organizations that manufacture, distribute, and/or retail consumer goods, making his message both timely and relevant for their audience.

• Strong business leadership foundation — Beyond his “Miracle on the Hudson” story, Dave spent more than 30 years in sales, leadership, and business development roles, bringing real-world corporate credibility to his message.  
• Direct relevance to Pella’s industry — Dave has worked extensively within the consumer products and manufacturing space and previously worked with Pella during his Oracle CPG years, giving him familiarity with the pressures of distribution, sales performance, leadership alignment, and operational execution.
• Aligns closely with Pella’s culture pillars — His keynotes emphasize courageous leadership, accountability under pressure, resilience through uncertainty, and creating high-performance teams that drive results.  
• Practical leadership frameworks — Dave combines storytelling with actionable strategies around decision-making, communication, adaptability, and scaling through uncertainty.
• Highly relevant in today’s environment — His message helps leaders navigate disruption, change, and ambiguity while maintaining focus, trust, and momentum.
• Experienced with executive audiences — Dave regularly speaks to leadership teams, sales organizations, and enterprise audiences on topics including resilience, change management, culture, and business growth.  

Recommended Keynotes:

1) Leading Without Authority

In today’s workplace, the people who create the greatest impact are not always the ones with the biggest titles. They are the ones who know how to build trust, stay calm under pressure, influence outcomes, and move people forward when the stakes are high.

In Leading Without Authority, Dave Sanderson shows audiences how to lead from any seat, in any room, under any condition. Drawing from the life-and-death lessons of US Airways Flight 1549 and the mindset shifts that define real leadership, Dave reveals what it takes to stay clear, credible, and effective when everything around you feels uncertain.

This keynote equips leaders, teams, and organizations to stop waiting for permission and start taking responsibility. Audiences learn how to create trust through competence, anchor their decisions in values, and respond to pressure with clarity instead of chaos. Dave also introduces his practical 1549 Framework, a simple but powerful method to help people acknowledge reality, evaluate options, act decisively, support others, and stay calm while moving fast.

Key audience takeaways include:

• How to lead with confidence and credibility, even when you do not have formal authority

• Why trust and competence are the foundation of high-performing teams

• How to stay clear, calm, and effective when plans break down

• Why pressure reveals leadership, and how to prepare for it before it arrives

• A practical framework for making better decisions and guiding others through uncertainty

This keynote does more than inspire. It gives audiences a mindset and a method they can use immediately. When your people learn how to lead without authority, they do not wait for change; they become the reason it happens.

2) Embrace Uncertainty to Ignite Opportunity

In this stirring presentation, Dave Sanderson reveals the lessons and strategies that helped guide his decisions following the crash of US Airways Flight 1549, or “The Miracle on the Hudson.” Dave not only survived the “crash” but realized that there were critical moments in his life that prepared him for how he came through the events of that day. In this 50-minute presentation, Dave shares practical and implementable strategies on resiliency, leadership, and mindset anyone can use to survive their “personal plane crash” moment, grow, and create opportunity out of uncertainty.

Takeaways

• Aviate, Navigate and Communicate
• Confidence, Competency, and Creativity
• Creating conditions around you for success