Greg McKeown

  • CEO, THIS Inc.
  • Bestselling Business Author of Essentialism
  • Business Blogger

Greg McKeown, CEO of THIS Inc., has dedicated his career to discovering why some people break through to the next level—and others don’t. The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

McKeown is an accomplished public speaker who has spoken to hundreds of audiences around the world and whose distinctive style of speaking sets him apart from other polished speakers. He spurns slides in favor of having a conversation with participants. The interactive experience is entertaining and engaging from the first moment to the last instant. As one event organizer put it, “Not one person ever checked their phone through Greg’s keynote!”

Organizations, teams, and individuals have benefited from McKeown’s innovative perspective, which challenges conventional wisdom and defines how to break through to the next level of success and profitability. In a compelling way, Greg Mckeown’s Essentialism keynotes will ignite a conversation that revolutionizes the way your organization thinks and works.

 

Greg McKeown headshot
Past Hosts Include:
  • Apple
  • Google
  • Stanford
  • Cisco
  • VMWare
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Ann Taylor
  • Loft
  • Salient Partners
  • Catalyst
Rave Reviews About Greg McKeown
You blew it out of the park – it was inspiring, thought provoking, and incredibly entertaining. You had participants on the edge of their seats for nearly two hours, which we all know is no small feat. We imagined a great event, but this far exceeded our expectations.

Keynote - The Disciplined Pursuit of Less | VitalSmarts REACH Conf. [45:49] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Greg McKeown
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Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

This keynote speaks to people who have ever felt motion sickness instead of momentum or felt they were making a millimeter progress in a million directions. Greg McKeown offers a way of thinking for discerning what is essential, eliminating what is not, and removing obstacles in order to make execut ...

This keynote speaks to people who have ever felt motion sickness instead of momentum or felt they were making a millimeter progress in a million directions. Greg McKeown offers a way of thinking for discerning what is essential, eliminating what is not, and removing obstacles in order to make execution as effortless as possible. The disciplined pursuit of less (but better) outlines how to break through to the next level of contribution.

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Biography

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people break through to the next level—and others don’t.

The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s latest project: the instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.  As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

McKeown is the CEO of THIS Inc, a company whose mission is to assist people and companies to spend 80 percent of their time on the vital few rather than the trivial many. Clients include Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!.

His writing has appeared or been covered by Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a month.

McKeown has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR’s All Things Considered and NBC’s Press: Here. Entrepreneur magazine voted his interview at Stanford University the #1 Must-See Video on Business, Creativity and Success.  

McKeown is an accomplished public speaker. He has spoken to hundreds of audiences around the world including in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Singapore.

Highlights in 2014 include speaking at SXSW, interviewing Al Gore at the Annual Conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and receiving a personal invitation from Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, to speak to his Annual Innovation Conference.

McKeown challenges conventional wisdom in a unique and engaging style from the first moment to the last instant. As the event organizer at Greater Public said after McKeown addressed their 1,000-person conference, “I have been part of this event for 16 years and McKeown is the best speaker we have ever had!”

McKeown is an active Social Innovator, serving as a board member for Washington D.C. policy group Resolve (KONY 2012) and as a mentor with 2 Seeds, a non-profit incubator for agricultural projects in Africa. He has also been a speaker at non-profit groups including The Kauffman Fellows, Net Impact and Stanford University: he recently gave back to Stanford University by co-creating a popular class called, Designing Life, Essentially.

He serves as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum.  He recently moderated a session at the “Summer Davos” in China called, “Unpacking Social Innovation Models for Maximum Impact,” served as a panelist at the “Sharpening Your Creative Edge” working session at the Forum. 

Prior to this, McKeown collaborated in the research and writing of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and worked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Practice assessing senior executives.

Originally from London, England, McKeown now lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and their four children. He graduated with an MBA from Stanford University.