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Kathy Varol

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Kathy helps her clients use purpose and ESG to stand out in a competitive environment, attract the best talent, gain consumer loyalty, and fully harness the innovative brain power of their employees (innovation that keeps them miles ahead of the competition). She shares her deep knowledge and “how to” with clients, so they can skip the hard lessons and go straight to strategies that work.   
 
Kathy has 20 years of experience across brand marketing, strategy, and impact, working at established brands like Adidas, MillerCoors, and Microsoft. Through her experience, Kathy has developed a repeatable 4-step process to become a purpose-led brand: The Brand Purpose Model. When businesses embed purpose into the heart of their strategy, they don’t just disrupt their industry. They also bring humanity into the workplace, shape the future, and impact the world. 
 
Kathy created the Global Purpose strategy for Adidas, a 22 billion dollar global company, encompassing everything Adidas does to positively impact People and Planet. Kathy’s hands-on experience creating purposeful change includes crafting the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) strategy for Adidas. Through this experience, Kathy has learned the unintentional barriers that get in the way of a thriving culture, as well as how to foster a culture of inclusion, collaboration, and continuous improvement.  
 
At Adidas, Kathy also created a holistic sustainability strategy and developed social equality platforms. These initiatives included creating an army of loyal brand advocates by inviting consumers to join a movement to end plastic waste, increasing access to sport for girls around the globe, developing new products, and initiating bold corporate actions to stand against inequality. Kathy left Adidas to help other companies on their journey to become purpose-led. She brings her wealth of expertise to move companies beyond outdated Corporate Social Responsibility approaches and into the new era of business-integrated conscious capitalism.  

Speaking Topics

Drive Profit With Purpose

How do you stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace? How do you attract top talent? How do you increase profitability?  You do something remarkable. Purpose makes brands remarkable. 


​As consumers, we’re putting our dollars toward companies with aligned values. 85% of millennials in the United States would switch brands for a good cause, and 50% of growth in consumer goods went to sustainability-marketed products between 2013 and 2018. 


As employees, we’re looking for meaning in our careers, and the best talent is choosing to work for organizations that feed their hearts as well as their bank accounts. 92% of millennials believe that working for an environmentally and socially responsible company is important. 


In the modern world, companies without a purpose beyond profit will be left behind. You can either be a pioneering force for good in your industry, or the disrupted. Kathy built the global purpose strategy for adidas, a 22 billion dollar company, encompassing everything adidas does to positively impact people and planet. Through trial and error, Kathy has learned what works, and what doesn’t. 


Through her work, a model emerged. A way to successfully use purpose to drive profit.


In the Drive Profit with Purpose keynote, Kathy will reveal her 4-step Brand Purpose Model to engage your organization, inspire innovation, and win the hearts of your consumers.


You Will Learn:

  • 7 common mistakes in creating a purpose-led organization
  • Why a corporate social responsibility department won’t get you the impact – or the credit – you want
  • How to get the best talent knocking on your door and have the most engaged employees
  • Why doing good is the magic bullet to get the most powerful form of advertising (for free!)


This Keynote Is Perfect For Leaders And Companies:

  • Competing in a crowded market
  • Creating differentiation through marketing, ingredients, and/or process
  • Struggling with a talent shortage, high turnover, and/or high employee disengagement
  • Looking to accelerate growth and increase ROI (in a sustainable way)​
  • Ready to unlock the innovative brain power of their employees

Master ESG To Lead The Future

ESG Is the Strategy You Can’t Afford to Ignore

Let’s be honest:

ESG has become a lightning rod.

Politicized. Polarized.

Twisted to mean everything—and nothing.


But beneath the noise and confusion, ESG still does what it was always designed to do:

reduce risk and build smarter, stronger businesses.


Environmental, Social, and Governance strategy isn’t fluff.

It’s how you fix what’s broken.

It’s how you lead with integrity, fuel innovation, and create long-term value.


Done well, ESG is a goldmine for resilience and profitability. But most companies either don’t know where to start—or get lost in trying to please everyone.


That’s where I come in.


I help organizations cut through the noise, focus on what matters, and embed ESG into the bones of their business. Not as a feel-good story. As a real, measurable strategy.


In this keynote, I’ll walk you through a clear process to bring ESG to life in a way that’s authentic, practical, and powerful.

The Sustainability Revolution

This Isn’t a Trend. It’s a Transformation

Let’s cut through the noise:

Sustainability isn’t just about saving the planet.

It’s about saving and making money.

It’s about staying relevant, resilient, and ready for the future.


Sustainability has become a core indicator of long-term success.

And yet most companies are either scrambling to catch up—

or missing the opportunity entirely.


In this keynote, I break it down.

I’ll share the three fastest-moving areas of sustainable innovation—

and show how visionary companies are turning these into growth engines,

reputation boosters, and risk reducers.


This is your roadmap to lead, not lag.

To innovate boldly.

To build a business that doesn’t just survive the next decade—but defines it.

Unlock Exponential Results By Nurturing Purpose, People, And Culture

Data clearly shows that businesses that nurture their purpose, people, and culture unlock exponential results: engaged employees, loyal consumers, increased innovation, and accelerated growth.


In this keynote through captivating business stories, Kathy will share why shifting the focus from your output (revenue) to your inputs (purpose, people, and culture) will drive better results. Kathy will also share concrete strategies you use right away to nurture each of these business inputs.


In the keynote you will learn:

  • The toxic beliefs that have infected workplace cultures (and how to shift them)
  • How the world’s most loved companies use purpose to cultivate enviable consumer loyalty (and how you can too)
  • The secret sauce to creating a world-class culture
  • How to enable your employees to truly shine (and innovate!)
  • The one force more powerful to your profitability than any business model


This Keynote Is Perfect For Leaders And Companies:

  • Competing in an increasingly crowded market and struggling to stand out
  • Experiencing high turnover, and/or high employee disengagement
  • Struggling to foster collaboration across company silos and departments
  • Running into groupthink and “yes men” cultural conformity

Kathy Varol's Experiences

EXPERIENCE DETAILS

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Virtual In-Person

Experience Details

Virtual In-Person
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Testimonials

Kathy has the extraordinary ability to translate complex data points into accessible, transformative storytelling. She has a passion, presence and the ability to bring the audience along on the journey. Kathy is a motivator, thought leader and impactful strategist.

Kathy is a force for change. An inspiring speaker that energized us to aim higher, while sharing the tools to implement change. Kathy is a natural connector of people, and infectiously optimistic in the power of innovation to create the future.

Kathy’s passion and strategic approach to Purpose connect the aspirational to the practical. She is engaging, energetic and makes you want to take action.

We came out more clear, unified, and specific about what steps we wanted to take to evolve our strategy. The benefits of clarity and simplicity cannot be emphasized enough.

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