Abosede George-Ogan

Speaking

Speaking that moves institutions from awareness to action.

Available in London August-early September 2026 for UK and European engagements.

Abosede George-Ogan on stage with a microphone, speaking to a seated audience

On stage

Event-ready talks

Six talks. Three rooms.

01 · Universal audiencesWhy Leadership Fails When the Systems Are Missing+

The flagship talk. Every institution believes it supports leadership. Most do not understand what leadership actually requires to be sustained - the systems of belief, evidence, financing, policy, and infrastructure that make it possible for the right people to step forward, stay, and succeed. Abosede uses women's leadership as the case study - not because it is a women's issue, but because it is the clearest proof available that when systems are missing, talent is not enough.

Audience: All audiences - government, corporate, development finance, universities, foundations, technology, faith communities

Formats: Keynote, Executive Masterclass, Policy Dialogue

Value to individuals: Individuals leave understanding that the systems around leadership matter as much as the leaders themselves - and with a framework for diagnosing what is missing in the rooms they lead.

Value to organisations: Organisations leave with a systems diagnostic - the specific structures that determine whether their leadership investments produce outcomes or produce activity.

02 · Women's conferences, summits and professional networksYou Cannot Become What You Cannot Imagine+

The norm-shifting talk. Abosede could not see herself in political leadership as a child because the television showed her nothing. That was not an accident. It was a design. This talk argues that visibility is not personal promotion - it is public infrastructure. It is the argument behind The Leading Woman Show, the MsRepresented Campaign, and twenty years of deliberate, strategic public presence.

Audience: Women's leadership summits, professional networks, media organisations, educational institutions, corporate women's programmes, communications forums

Formats: Keynote, Fireside Conversation

Value to individuals: Women leave understanding that their visibility is not about ego - it is about the imagination of the women watching them. They leave with a framework for building a public voice that is strategic, not performative.

Value to organisations: Organisations gain a clear case for why profiling and amplifying women leaders is a pipeline investment, not a communications exercise.

03 · Women's conferences, summits and professional networksShe Built the Road: Creating the Conditions for Women to Lead+

She searched for guidance on how to run for office as a woman in Nigeria. She found almost nothing. Today she is not filling gaps - she is shaping what comes next. This talk takes that origin story and turns it into a framework: what every leader who walks through a door first owes the women who come after them is a door that stays open.

Audience: Women's leadership summits, corporate women's programmes, development sector convenings, senior leadership retreats, mentoring programme launches

Formats: Keynote, Masterclass, Fireside Conversation

Value to individuals: Women leave with a framework for thinking about their own leadership legacy - the specific decisions that determine whether their work creates conditions or creates dependency.

Value to organisations: Organisations gain a model for building leadership conditions that outlast individuals.

04 · Executive retreats, DEI conferences, governance and policy forumsPresence Is Not Power: What It Actually Takes for Women to Lead+

Getting into the room is not the achievement. Shaping decisions in the room is. Many institutions celebrate gender milestones without examining whether the women present can actually change an outcome. This talk dismantles the comfortable idea that representation is progress and replaces it with a harder question: if you asked the women in your organisation whether they feel able to change an outcome in their last three meetings, what would they say?

Audience: Executive retreats, DEI summits, corporate leadership programmes, governance forums, board-level convenings

Formats: Keynote, Policy Dialogue, Fireside Conversation, Executive Masterclass

Value to individuals: Individual leaders leave with the language to diagnose whether their role gives them genuine decision-making power - and a framework for building the coalition that converts presence into influence.

Value to organisations: Organisations gain a diagnostic for whether their inclusion efforts produce genuine power-sharing or cosmetic representation.

05 · Executive retreats, DEI conferences, governance and policy forumsSystems Do Not Change Unless Enforced+

Three questions. Does your organisation have a specific, measurable target for women's leadership? Is there a timeline with accountability attached? Is there a consequence if the target is not met? Organisations that answer yes to all three are doing governance. Those that cannot are doing communication. Built on the State of Women's Leadership Report 2025 and her experience chairing Nigeria's National Development Plan Gender Sub-committee.

Audience: Governance forums, policy summits, multilateral convenings, development finance institutions, legislative platforms, government programmes

Formats: Keynote, Policy Dialogue, Executive Masterclass

Value to individuals: Individual leaders leave with a personal accountability framework - the three questions that distinguish performative commitment from structural action.

Value to organisations: Organisations leave with a governance diagnostic and the structural elements that determine whether stated commitments produce outcomes.

06 · Technology, civic tech and social innovation forumsBuilding Civic Technology That Changes Behaviour, Not Just Engagement+

After eight years of delivering WILAN's work one room at a time, Abosede built the WILAN Suite - not because she wanted to build technology, but because she needed to change behaviour at a scale that hands-on programmes cannot reach. This talk is about what it means to design for behaviour change, not engagement metrics - and what the specific decisions look like when your user has historically been excluded from both technology and power.

Audience: Technology and innovation conferences, civic tech summits, social innovation forums, impact investing convenings, development finance forums

Formats: Keynote, Masterclass, Fireside Conversation

Value to individuals: Individual practitioners leave with a design philosophy for civic technology - the questions that distinguish platforms that change behaviour from those that merely confirm existing beliefs.

Value to organisations: Organisations and investors gain a framework for evaluating civic technology investments - what distinguishes platforms that change conditions from those that only engage users.

Takeaways

What participants leave with.

  • A clearer understanding of systemic barriers to women's leadership
  • Practical frameworks for institutional and policy reform
  • Insight into narrative and media as power-shaping systems
  • Tools for building sustainable leadership pipelines for women
  • A gender-lens approach that moves beyond optics to outcomes
Abosede George-Ogan speaking at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, CSW70
UN Commission on the Status of Women, CSW70
Abosede George-Ogan on a women in politics panel at CSW70
Women in politics panel, CSW70

Why Abosede

Why organisers book her.

  • She combines policy expertise, systems thinking and compelling storytelling
  • She speaks with clarity, authority and evidence
  • She connects global conversations to institutional realities
  • She moves audiences from awareness to action

Engagement

Formats for every stage.

Abosede George-Ogan on stage with a microphone, speaking to a seated audience

Keynotes

High-impact addresses for global stages, policy summits, and institutional gatherings. Abosede speaks with the authority of someone who has built what she is talking about. Her keynotes move audiences from awareness to accountability - built around evidence, structured around argument, and closed with a question the room cannot stop asking after she leaves.

Ideal for: Conferences and summits of 200+ attendees, galas, annual convenings, international forums, opening and closing plenary sessions

Enquire →
Abosede George-Ogan in a strategy meeting with stakeholders

Policy Dialogues

Evidence-led conversations on governance reform, women's political inclusion, and institutional design. Abosede brings primary research from the State of Women's Leadership Report 2025 and a decade of cross-sector policy experience. These sessions are designed to produce a specific outcome: a room that leaves with a mechanism, not just a mindset.

Ideal for: Government and multilateral forums, legislative platforms, development finance convenings, think-tank roundtables, policy and governance summits

Enquire →
Abosede George-Ogan gesturing while speaking on a premium stage

Executive Masterclasses

Structured 60 to 90-minute sessions equipping senior leaders with practical frameworks for gender-lens leadership, institutional accountability, and systems change. Each masterclass is built around a diagnostic tool that participants complete during the session and leave with as a working document. Not inspiration - application.

Ideal for: Executive leadership programmes, MBA and graduate education cohorts, corporate women's leadership development, leadership institutes, board effectiveness programmes

Enquire →
Abosede George-Ogan in a fireside conversation

Fireside Conversations

Intimate, candid, unscripted dialogue. Abosede is at her most direct in this format - willing to go to the uncomfortable places that keynote audiences rarely hear. These conversations work best when the audience is small enough to ask questions and senior enough to act on the answers.

Ideal for: Board retreats and leadership dinners, curated executive salons, senior women's leadership retreats, high-level donor and investor convenings

Enquire →

Bring Abosede's voice to your next stage.

For keynotes, policy dialogues, executive masterclasses and fireside conversations, invite Abosede George-Ogan to help your audience move from awareness to action.

bookings@abosedego.com