Holly Budge

1st Woman to Skydive Everest • North Face Everest Summiteer • Global Speaker on RISK & Leadership in High-Stakes Environments • Founder World Female Ranger Week (500m reach) & How Many Elephants NGO • STEM/Space Advocate

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Holly Budge's Biography

Holly Budge inspires leaders to embrace calculated risk and strategic courage, unlocking high-stakes opportunities and driving transformative results. She provides a practical, real-world framework for converting extreme risk into measurable success and fostering the resilient growth mindset required for enduring achievement in volatile environments. Holly ’s expertise is forged in the world’s most extreme environments. She is a world-class adventurer, an Everest summiteer, and the first woman to skydive Everest. Crucially, she leveraged this pioneering spirit to become a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur and conservationist. After being shocked by the daily poaching crisis of African elephants, she earned a Master's in Sustainable Design and founded the global NGO, How Many Elephants. Her experience is not theoretical; it includes racing 1,000km across Mongolia on wild horses and patrolling with female anti- poaching units on the front line in Africa. This unique trajectory showcases a masterclass in calculated risk, resilience, and purpose-driven leadership. Today, Holly channels her advocacy and unique skillset into a global movement as the creator of World Female Ranger Week and a UN Women UK Delegate. Her conservation work, which has been praised by Sir David Attenborough and reached over 500 million people, has raised over £500,000, supporting female rangers across 24+ countries. Sought after by the world’s leading organizations, she has delivered powerful insights to executives and teams at companies including J.P. Morgan, Shell, British Airways, McKinsey, and The North Face. As an author and travel writer, her work has been featured in major global media outlets, including Forbes, National Geographic, Travel & Leisure, and Marie Claire. Recognised globally as the WISE100 'Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise', her accolades include the Gold Stevie® Award for 'Thought Leader of the Year in Non-Profit’ and recognition on The Diversity Power List 2025 as a profound champion of diversity. On the main stage, Holly delivers deeply personal, high-action keynotes that blend gripping, often nail-biting stories with highly actionable takeaways. She provides leaders and teams with the mindset shifts and strategic tools needed to embrace uncertainty, move from risk-averse to risk-ready and supercharge their ambition. She doesn't just talk about having an Everest to climb, she provides the blueprint for getting it done.

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Holly Budge Keynote Topics

The Risk Ready Mindset: Turning Uncertainty into Your Competitive Edge

In a world defined by volatility, comfort has become a liability. Drawing on experiences from summiting Everest, skydiving over it, and operating on the frontline of conservation in Africa, Holly reveals how the most effective leaders turn fear into fuel. This high-energy keynote reframes risk as a strategic advantage, equipping audiences with practical tools to make bold, calculated decisions, build resilience, and act decisively when outcomes are uncertain.

2. Leading Under Pressure: Redefining Leadership in a World That Won’t Slow Down

What does leadership really look like when there’s no playbook? From leading teams in extreme environments to navigating life-or-death decisions in the field, Holly shares a modern model of leadership built on courage, empathy, and trust. This keynote challenges outdated hierarchies and control-based thinking, offering leaders a powerful framework to unite teams, unlock performance, and lead with humanity and confidence under pressure.

3. The Elephant in the Boardroom: The Conservation Risk Equation

Sustainability isn’t a side project, it’s a leadership imperative. Drawing on over a decade of global conservation work, Holly translates environmental and social risk into clear, boardroom-ready insights. Through compelling frontline stories and strategic analysis, she shows how organisations that integrate purpose with profit don’t just protect the planet, they future-proof their business, strengthen reputation, and unlock long-term value.

Holly Budge's Biography

Crucially, she leveraged this pioneering spirit to become a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur and conservationist. After being shocked by the daily poaching crisis of African elephants, she earned a Master's in Sustainable Design and founded the global NGO, How Many Elephants.

Her experience is not theoretical; it includes racing 1,000km across Mongolia on wild horses and patrolling with female anti- poaching units on the front line in Africa. This unique trajectory showcases a masterclass in calculated risk, resilience, and purpose-driven leadership.

Today, Holly channels her advocacy and unique skillset into a global movement as the creator of World Female Ranger Week and a UN Women UK Delegate. Her conservation work, which has been praised by Sir David Attenborough and reached over 500 million people, has raised over £500,000, supporting female rangers across 24+ countries. Sought after by the world’s leading organizations, she has delivered powerful insights to executives and teams at companies including J.P. Morgan, Shell, British Airways, McKinsey, and The North Face.

As an author and travel writer, her work has been featured in major global media outlets, including Forbes, National Geographic, Travel & Leisure, and Marie Claire. Recognised globally as the WISE100 'Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise', her accolades include the Gold Stevie® Award for 'Thought Leader of the Year in Non-Profit’ and recognition on The Diversity Power List 2025 as a profound champion of diversity.

On the main stage, Holly delivers deeply personal, high-action keynotes that blend gripping, often nail-biting stories with highly actionable takeaways. She provides leaders and teams with the mindset shifts and strategic tools needed to embrace uncertainty, move from risk-averse to risk-ready and supercharge their ambition. She doesn't just talk about having an Everest to climb, she provides the blueprint for getting it done.