SAMANTHA KARLIN
Speaking
Samantha helps drive impactful leadership by empowering leaders to thrive in a volatile, ever-changing world through immersive, customized leadership programs that blend AI-driven insights with cultural intelligence and dynamic, interactive training.
Transform Your
Organization's
Leadership
Samantha Karlin is a visionary leadership expert and TEDx speaker who has transformed how over 15,000 leaders across 38 countries approach leadership in our complex global environment. As the founder and CEO of Empower Global, she brings a unique blend of cultural intelligence, transformational leadership principles, and practical strategies to help organizations thrive in today’s rapidly changing world.
Known for her high-energy, interactive speaking style, Samantha keeps audiences engaged and motivated while creating inclusive environments where everyone feels heard. Her approach combines cutting-edge research in neuroscience with real-world experience in global affairs, making complex concepts accessible and immediately actionable.
Topic 01
Accelerating Action on gender equality
This Women’s History Month 2025, Samantha Karlin brings her dynamic expertise and passion to the global stage with her keynote, Accelerate Action: Bold Leadership for Gender Equality. Grounded in the IWD 2025 theme, Samantha’s message is a powerful rallying cry to speed up progress toward closing the gender gap, which at the current rate of progress, won’t be achieved until 2158!
With over a decade of experience empowering women leaders across 48 countries, Samantha has partnered with organizations around the world to dismantle systemic barriers and create inclusive workplaces where women can thrive. From advising Fortune 500 companies on cultural intelligence to guiding NGOs in designing equitable leadership pipelines, Samantha equips organizations with actionable strategies to foster allyship, and accelerate women’s advancement.
Through compelling data, actionable insights, and her signature Intrinsic Power Map framework, Samantha inspires audiences to break systemic barriers and elevate women worldwide. She gives both men and women tangible actions that they can take to accelerate actions in your organization immediately. Book Samantha for your International Women’s Day event to empower your audience with the tools to #AccelerateAction and create lasting impact for gender equality.
Topic 02
From Transactional to Transformational: Leading in a Globalized World
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, leaders must navigate the complexities of diverse cultural dynamics, shifting global power structures, and rapidly evolving expectations of leadership. The most successful leaders are those who move beyond transactional management to embrace transformational leadership that inspires and unites across boundaries.
In this thought-provoking keynote, Samantha Karlin explores the critical leadership trends shaping the global landscape, from the rise of cultural intelligence as a core competency to the shift toward purpose-driven leadership rooted in connection and empathy. Using compelling case studies from global conflict zones such as Syria and Venezuela, Samantha draws striking parallels between what individuals in crisis demand from leaders—trust, clarity, compassion, and vision—and what employees in corporate settings are increasingly seeking from their leaders. She demonstrates how the transition from fear-based to love-based leadership can inspire loyalty, build resilience, and create environments where people can thrive.
Through vivid storytelling and actionable insights, Samantha highlights how transformational leadership can bridge divides, inspire diverse teams, and create inclusive, purpose-driven cultures. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how to lead authentically in a globalized world, equipped with the tools to shift mindsets, build cross-cultural bridges, and create meaningful impact on a global scale.
Topic 03
Leading with confidence in a "VUCA" World
In today’s rapidly changing landscape, leaders are facing unprecedented challenges: technological disruption, globalization, economic uncertainty, and societal shifts. To thrive in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, leaders must embrace adaptability, innovate boldly, and inspire others to navigate through change.
In this engaging and actionable keynote, Samantha draws from her expertise in leadership development, cultural intelligence, and the latest advancements in AI to equip leaders with the tools they need to succeed.
Leveraging the latest in neuroscience, she provides insights on navigating uncertainty with grace, harnessing emerging technologies to drive innovation and shares actionable tools for the audience on cultivating an adaptive leadership mindset – which transforms challenges into opportunities.
Through real-world examples and powerful storytelling, this keynote leaves leaders inspired and empowered to rise to the challenges of a VUCA world and create lasting impact within their organizations.
Inquiry Form
Expertise That Drives Real Results
Why Partner with Samantha?
What sets Samantha apart isn’t just her impressive credentials or global experience – it’s her ability to create lasting change.
Organizations that work with her report stronger team collaboration, more confident and adaptable leaders, enhanced emotional intelligence, and improved cross-cultural communication. As a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow, former senior facilitator at the Partnership for Public Service, Korn Ferry, and The Neuroleadership Institute, she brings both academic rigor, neuroscientific knowledge and practical wisdom to every engagement.
Her approach combines cultural intelligence, AI integration, and transformational leadership principles to help organizations thrive in today’s rapidly changing environment.
Samantha hails from a background on the stage, where she was an operatic coloratura soprano.
She is currently noodling around with a new keynote that combines an operatic aria with her leadership acumen….Inquire if interested.
Check out speaking
Testimonials
"Samantha's event was the highlight of my weekend at Summit."
Arleen Van London
Experiential Event Producer
"Samantha is incredibly engaging. She kept our leaders on their toes."
Eva Majersczik
EVP and Head of People, Genesys
"Samantha's energy is UNMATCHED."
KATHLEEN HESSMAN
Internal Revenue Service
"This was one of the most well-received talks we've ever had."
Verniesa Allen
DEI Head, DC Bar
"Samantha is MAGIC. In one event, people shared that she actually changed the course of their lives."
Leslie Scofield
Investor
About Us
Meet Samantha Karlin
- Education: Harvard, Tufts, Yale, Korn Ferry, Neuroleadership Institute
Samantha Karlin is a visionary leadership development expert, speaker, and changemaker on a mission to transform how leadership is practiced to create environments where people and organizations can truly flourish. As the founder and CEO of Empower Global, she and her team specialize in designing customized leadership accelerators, cross-cultural training, and workshops that prepare leaders to thrive in a VUCA world—one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. With a global track record of training over 10,000 leaders from 48 countries, Samantha is passionate about activating purpose-driven changemakers and teaching strategies for sustainable leadership. She has worked across sectors, from corporate boardrooms to international NGOs, helping leaders navigate the challenges of today’s turbulent global landscape.
Samantha is the designer and lead instructor of the Women’s Leadership Challenge, an exclusive year-long program for ambitious women who are ready to break through glass ceilings and lead authentically in male-dominated industries. The program equips women with the confidence, tools, and strategies they need to thrive in today’s world while embracing feminist leadership principles that drive gender equity and system change. Known for her dynamic, high-energy approach, Samantha’s interactive training style keeps her audiences engaged and motivated, whether she’s facilitating a workshop or giving a keynote address. Her unique blend of storytelling, humor, and personal anecdotes makes key concepts relatable, while her ability to foster inclusive, welcoming environments ensures everyone feels heard and valued.
Check out what
people say
dwan tabor
Executive Vice President OF Group Strategy | AS ONE INSURANCE GROUP
Passionate, engaging, well-versed, and extremely relatable are all characteristics that I would use to describe Samantha’s Women’s Empowerment keynote presentation at our company in March.
We were excited to have her speak and end Women’s History Month on the highest note possible, as we continue to do the work that is necessary to foster continuous improvement from an inclusivity perspective. Samantha did not disappoint. During the presentation she eloquently presented facts, solutions, and injected humor to lighten the mood for some of the heavier topics discussed while simultaneously maintaining the subject’s significance.
I highly recommend working with Samantha for speaking engagements if you are looking for someone knowledgeable and personable to champion DEIJ values and allyship within your organization. Thank you, Samantha!
Kyla bishop
Exploration Geologist | WINTERSHALL DEA
Thanks to Samantha for a great presentation and workshops for our organization. I thought it brought so much value to our group and was a great catalyst for us to keep working to improve.
Events like this help us to define our values and set standards for how we want to work – but also just give us a chance to come together to learn as a community.
I absolutely recommend Samantha to any organization looking to move forward on how to communicate in a realistic, multinational setting and to actively empower all employees!
Caitlin anderson
Senior Sales Leader | AMAZON WEB SERVICES
Samantha is an inspirational leader and speaker who is passionate and knowledgeable on the subject of biases and disparities that women in the technology industry face every day.
She led a collaborative workshop for our team that allowed for a safe space for us to learn, share our experiences, and discuss how we can better support and advocate for our success, work/life balance, and professional development.
I highly recommend her.
Katie curiel
Project Director | International Exchange Programs | LEGACY INTERNATIONAL
Passionate, inquisitive, authentic, personable, professional… This embodies Samantha in our work with her as we collaborated on building and facilitating the key training for our virtual women’s empowerment program for 60 young professionals in Palestine in March 2022. Samantha worked closely with us to understand our participants and the cultural aspects that are unique to their experience of gender and empowerment; this was critical to implementing an effective training and she went above and beyond to assure her understanding and content were culturally relevant.
Samantha also adjusted her language so our non-native English speaking audience could more easily comprehend and engage. The participants highly rated her training as one of their favorite aspects of the program. They not only learned a lot about women’s empowerment but they gained a great deal of inspiration, especially through Samantha’s authentic self. Samantha’s content covered women’s empowerment globally as well as in the MENA region and Palestine. She did her homework and delivered! We highly recommend Samantha and Empower Global and look forward to partnering again.
Kathleen Hager-Gima
Internal Communications Wizard | GRAHAM PACKAGING
I would absolutely recommend Samantha Karlin and Empower Global.
I got so much out of the women’s workshop series (i.e., Women’s Leadership Accelerator) Samantha facilitated for my company. I happen to be passionate about DE&I, and workshops like this help us discover our intersectional diversity within our larger identity groups (in this case, women). It was truly eye-opening learning more about my female colleagues and the experiences that shaped their views on the world, the workplace, and themselves.
Being able to do self-discovery work was very meaningful to me, as well. As a company, we value self-development and growth; as people, growth takes self-reflection, and Samantha’s workshop series guided us in that as working women who want to be more empowered in our lives and careers.
Being in a (virtual) room with other professional women dealing with similar situations and feelings gave me a huge sense of support. And it opened up some amazing doors, and now I’m collaborating on projects with women colleagues I wouldn’t have known otherwise.
Samantha tailored the workshop series to our needs and was very flexible. Her energy during was amazing, and I think all the attendees were inspired by her. I’d absolutely work with her again!
The most innovative organizations bring Samantha in to custom design their leadership retreats
Including keynotes, team building workshops, interactive trainings, and group adventures, be it a financial firm in Houston, Texas or an Entrepreneurs Summit on The Red Sea in Egypt.
“Samantha did such a great job of taking these lessons about embracing vulnerabililty, facing unexpected challenges, and getting outside our comfort zones, facilitating powerful discussions around them, and building powerful action points that we could then bring back to our personal and professional lives.” – Marshall Moser, CEO Vestigo