Amelia Rose Earhart
When conditions destabilise, most leaders shift from deciding to reacting. Organisations invest heavily in strategy and almost nothing in the practised composure required when the plan no longer holds. The gap between knowing disruption is coming and knowing what to do when it arrives is where execution fails.
The discipline leaders need when conditions collapse mid-mission is what Amelia Rose Earhart teaches, drawn from planning and executing a 24,300-nautical-mile circumnavigation as the youngest woman to fly a single-engine aircraft around the world.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Amelia Rose Earhart
- Her “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate” protocol, drawn directly from aviation’s standard emergency sequence, gives organisations a practical, step-ordered model for distributing responsibility and maintaining forward momentum when conditions destabilise.
- The 2014 circumnavigation she planned and executed required close to $2 million in corporate partnerships across 28 organisations, custom FAA engineering approval for an aircraft modification, and 17-stop coordination across 14 countries, making her case study in mission execution verifiable and specific, not metaphorical.
- A genealogy investigation, published by a colleague just before her departure, revealed no traceable connection to her famous namesake and triggered public accusations of fraud; the fact that she proceeded and completed the flight gives her resilience argument a dimension most speakers cannot replicate.
- Learn to Love the Turbulence (2023) extends her “pilot in command” framework into a structured leadership methodology – passengers react while pilots decide – providing a reference architecture that client teams can apply long after the event.
- Audiences include Boeing, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, United Healthcare, Lockheed Martin, Capital One, and the United States Air Force Academy, giving her both commercial credibility and access to high-stakes operational contexts.
Biography highlights
- Youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft (Pilatus PC-12 NG, 2014); first to do so in that aircraft type
- Self-funded and managed the 24,300-nautical-mile, 17-stop global flight, raising close to $2 million across 28 corporate partnerships and securing custom FAA engineering approval
- Holds private, instrument, and commercial pilot certificates
- Approximately 15 years as a broadcast news anchor and reporter: KUSA-TV (9NEWS, NBC affiliate, Denver) and Los Angeles television
- Author of Learn to Love the Turbulence (2023, with Kristin Clark Taylor); keynote clients include Boeing, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, United Healthcare, and the United States Air Force Academy
- Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award (2013, Atchison, Kansas Chamber of Commerce); Jaycees Top Ten Young Americans (2014)
Biography
Aviation has a decision protocol for moments when a flight goes wrong: aviate first, navigate second, communicate third. Amelia Rose Earhart spent two years designing a circumnavigation that would test that protocol under real conditions. Closed borders, a custom FAA-engineered fuel system, and a public genealogy scandal nearly derailed the flight before it left California.
In June 2014, she departed Oakland in a single-engine Pilatus PC-12 NG. Across 17 stops and 24,300 nautical miles through 14 countries, she landed back in California on July 11. The mission required close to $2 million in corporate partnerships across 28 organisations, custom FAA engineering approval, and open-water survival training. She became the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft, and the first to do it in a PC-12 NG.
Her 2023 book, Learn to Love the Turbulence, codifies what that flight revealed about organisational decision-making. Preparedness, not optimism, is what keeps teams airborne when conditions deteriorate. The “pilot in command” framework – passengers react, pilots decide – is now the architecture of her work with Fortune 500 clients and the United States Air Force Academy.
Before the circumnavigation, she spent approximately 15 years as a news anchor and reporter, at KUSA-TV (NBC’s Denver affiliate) and in Los Angeles. That background sharpens her communication under pressure and her ability to hold a senior audience, which are not the same skill.
Key speaking topics
- High-stakes decision-making and mission execution
- Resilience and adaptive leadership
- Strategic planning under uncertainty
- Risk assessment and contingency thinking
- Goal setting and organisational accountability
- Women in aviation and STEM leadership pathways
- Team performance under pressure
Ideal for
- C-suite and senior leadership teams navigating high-stakes execution challenges or strategic pivots
- Sales and commercial teams preparing for stretch targets or significant market disruption
- Women’s leadership programmes and DEI-focused executive conferences
- Annual leadership conferences and kick-offs requiring both narrative coherence and audience energy
Audience outcomes
- A practical decision sequence – aviate, navigate, communicate – for maintaining clarity and distributing responsibility when a plan breaks down in real time
- A clearer distinction between reactive and decisive leadership, with a specific framework for building the latter as a team habit
- Concrete tools for forecasting risk and planning contingencies, drawn directly from aviation mission-planning discipline
- A reframing of disruption as a navigable condition rather than an exceptional one – and the mindset shift required to operate accordingly
- A reference framework from Learn to Love the Turbulence that extends the conversation beyond the event itself
Talks
A keynote that takes audiences inside the planning, funding, and execution of a 24,300-nautical-mile global circumnavigation, and the leadership lessons that only emerged when the mission was tested.
Key takeaways:
- What it takes to design and finance a complex, multi-partner mission from scratch, with no institutional backing
- How to maintain team composure and forward momentum when the plan breaks down mid-flight
- Why the decision to proceed, under public scrutiny and with last-minute obstacles, defines leadership more than the achievement itself
A practical session applying aviation’s mission-planning discipline to organisational goal-setting and execution, structured around the pre-flight process Earhart used to prepare her 2014 circumnavigation.
Key takeaways:
- How to build a structured “flight plan” for any significant organisational initiative, from route design to contingency protocols
- The concept of 360-degree risk assessment and how to operationalise it before conditions change
- How to assign clear cockpit roles, pilot in command, co-pilot, air traffic control within a leadership team
A talk grounded in the book of the same name, reframing disruption as a navigable condition rather than a reason to abort, and equipping teams with the “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate” protocol to keep moving through it.
Key takeaways:
- Why the strongest leaders build tolerance for turbulence rather than strategies to avoid it
- How the “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate” protocol applies to organisational decision-making when pressure is highest
- How to move from a passenger mindset to pilot-in-command thinking across an entire leadership team
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |