Jennifer Vessels
Most transformation programmes fail before the technology becomes the problem. Leaders invest in AI tools and change programmes, then stall because people are still holding on to a stable world that no longer exists. The gap between what organisations know they must do and what their leaders are equipped to do keeps widening, and it shows up in market value, talent, and relevance.
Jennifer Vessels is a Silicon Valley transformation CEO and creator of the P.E.A.C.E. Framework who helps global organisations close the gap between change ambition and leadership capability in an AI-accelerated environment.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Jennifer Vessels
- The P.E.A.C.E. Framework gives transformation a structured language and methodology: not abstract change theory, but a tested roadmap built from live engagements inside organisations including Adobe, Cisco, and Novartis
- She brings Silicon Valley operational experience applied globally. Having led transformation programmes across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, she translates insider knowledge of how the world’s most innovation-intensive organisations actually work into practical approaches for complex, multinational businesses
- She is an active CEO running transformation programmes concurrently with her speaking engagements, meaning her insights reflect current deployments, not retrospective case studies
- Her work on generational integration, aligning Gen Z talent, AI capability, and experienced human capital, addresses a workforce tension that most change and transformation speakers do not tackle with equivalent specificity
- Through the Executive Growth Alliance (EGA), she connects audiences to a live community of F100 leaders navigating the same challenges, giving organisations access to a peer learning network beyond the event itself
Biography highlights
- CEO of Next Step, Silicon Valley consulting firm leading business transformation for global enterprises since 2006
- Founder, Executive Growth Alliance: a global peer community of Fortune 100 leaders focused on future-of-work and AI adoption
- Creator of the P.E.A.C.E. Framework (Purpose, Exploration, Action, Collaboration, Empowerment), deployed across organisations including Adobe, Cisco, Google, IKEA, Microsoft, Novartis, and Schneider Electric
- Awarded “Best Technology Speaker ’24” (IOFM, Diversified Communications)
- Author of No Clue, No Fear: Navigating Storms of Change; new book Emergence: How Leaders Break Free from Outdated Thinking (Wiley, October 2026)
- Featured by EFMD, the World Economic Forum, the Institute of Directors, the San Jose Mercury News, and The New York Times
- MBA, San Jose State University; MS Occupational Psychology, University of London; INSEAD board governance certification
- Early career: international business development at Tandberg (acquired by Cisco); Director of Global Sales Operations at Tandem Computers
Biography
Leadership thinking built for the Industrial Age is not built for what organisations are experiencing now. Most change programmes assume that if the strategy is sound and the technology is right, transformation will follow. It does not. The missing variable is almost always how leaders are thinking, and what they are willing to let go of.
Jennifer Vessels has spent two decades inside that gap, working as CEO of Next Step across Silicon Valley, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Her client list includes Adobe, Cisco, Google, IKEA, Microsoft, Novartis, and Schneider Electric: organisations navigating business model change, AI adoption, and leadership redesign at scale. From that operational experience, she developed the P.E.A.C.E. Framework: a structured methodology giving leaders a repeatable roadmap through disruptive change rather than a case for why change is necessary.
What distinguishes her position is its currency. She is not drawing on past engagements. As an active CEO running transformation programmes alongside her speaking work, the examples she brings to audiences reflect live challenges rather than archived successes. She also founded the Executive Growth Alliance, a community of F100 leaders using collaborative challenge-resolution as a vehicle for building future-readiness collectively.
Her book Emergence: How Leaders Break Free from Outdated Thinking (Wiley, October 2026), endorsed by Thinkers50 co-founder Stuart Crainer, extends the framework into a broader argument about the leadership models that are no longer fit for purpose, and what replaces them.
Key speaking topics
- AI Adoption and Human-Centred Integration
- Change Leadership and Organisational Transformation
- Future of Work and Generational Integration
- The P.E.A.C.E. Framework for Leading Through Change
- Silicon Valley Innovation Applied to Global Business
- Business Model Redesign in an AI Era
Ideal for
- CEOs and senior leadership teams navigating business model transformation or AI adoption programmes
- Boards and executive committees seeking a working practitioner’s perspective on AI-era leadership
- CHROs and people leaders managing generational integration, workforce redesign, and future-of-work strategy
- Transformation leads and change management functions inside large multinational organisations
Audience outcomes
- A structured, repeatable framework (P.E.A.C.E.) that gives teams shared language for leading through uncertainty, usable Monday morning
- A clear diagnosis of why AI adoption and transformation programmes stall at the leadership level, with specific approaches to address it
- Practical tools for integrating generational diversity, particularly Gen Z talent alongside experienced human capital and AI capability
- A first-hand view of how organisations including Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia are integrating people with advanced technology, applied to the audience’s own market
- A mindset shift from defending what is crumbling to building what is emerging, positioning disruption as a source of competitive advantage
Talks
This talk equips leaders with the Emergence mindset and P.E.A.C.E. Framework to stop resisting structural business change and build competitive advantage from what is replacing it.
Key takeaways:
- Why the collapse of familiar business models creates competitive advantage when leaders know how to use it
- The Industrial Age leadership pillars that are no longer functional, and what is replacing them
- How to use the P.E.A.C.E. Framework to shift from fear and resistance to purposeful, structured action
This keynote translates up-to-the-minute Silicon Valley developments in AI, high-performance computing, and emerging business models into executable strategies for global organisations.
Key takeaways:
- How organisations including Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Nvidia are integrating people with advanced technology, and what this means for global leaders now
- The Silicon Valley operating mindset, speed, purposeful risk-taking, and relationship-driven innovation, applied to complex multinational environments
- The P.E.A.C.E. roadmap for building sustainable competitive advantage in a structurally different business environment
This talk makes the case for urgent leadership change, equipping audiences with the practical approaches Fortune 100 leaders are using to turn disruption into competitive advantage.
Key takeaways:
- The specific leadership behaviours that are accelerating failure in transformation programmes
- Real-world lessons from Adobe, Novartis, and Schneider Electric on what future-ready leadership actually looks like in practice
- Actionable next steps for moving teams from passive awareness of change to committed, equipped action
This keynote challenges the dominant narrative around AI adoption, showing how organisations that lead with human capability, rather than technology deployment, achieve greater and more sustainable results.
Key takeaways:
- Why most organisations approach AI adoption backwards, and the human-first formula that delivers real results
- Proven approaches from inside Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and Novartis on integrating AI without disengaging the workforce
- Leadership mindset shifts required to move teams from AI resistance to AI amplification
A practical session on aligning Gen Z talent, AI capability, and experienced staff into teams that outperform, rather than treating generational difference as a management problem.
Key takeaways:
- Why conventional management approaches misfire with Gen Z, and what replaces them
- How to combine Gen Z digital fluency, AI capability, and experienced judgement on the same team
- Approaches drawn from live multi-generational team-building inside large organisations