Helene Banner
Helene Banner inspires women and men to challenge invisible barriers and create more authentic, inclusive and empowered workplaces.
Why you should book Helene Banner for your next event
- Discover the invisible barriers that shape leadership and learn practical ways to create a more inclusive and empowered workplace.
- Gain fresh insights from Helene Banner’s career at the European Commission and her experience advising President Ursula von der Leyen.
- Inspire women and men to embrace authentic leadership, challenge expectations and turn inclusion into meaningful workplace change.
Non-binding request for Helene Banner
Female Leadership Expert, Former EU Spokesperson & Advocate for Authentic, Inclusive Workplaces
Helene Banner is a Female Leadership expert and Keynote Speaker who brings a fresh and practical perspective to leadership, inclusion and the invisible barriers that influence who gets heard, seen and empowered at work. Drawing on a distinguished career at the European Commission, where she became the youngest EU spokesperson and later advised Ursula von der Leyen, the first female President of the European Commission, Helene combines firsthand leadership experience with compelling insights. Through her project, “Let’s Just Be Imperfect, Ladies,” she encourages women and men to rethink expectations around leadership and create workplaces where authenticity and inclusion can drive meaningful change.
Rethinking Female Leadership with Helene Banner
What does it take to create a workplace where more people can lead authentically, contribute confidently and have a genuine impact? Helene Banner explores the barriers that often remain invisible in professional environments and shows audiences how leadership can become more inclusive, dynamic and human.
As a Female Leadership expert and Keynote Speaker, Helene Banner brings together personal experience, communication expertise and a deep commitment to workplace inclusion. Her keynotes address the expectations and structures that can shape access to power and influence, while giving organizations practical perspectives on how to create meaningful change.
Her message speaks to women and men alike. Rather than treating female leadership as a conversation relevant only to women, Helene explores how organizations as a whole can challenge established patterns, rethink leadership dynamics and build cultures where a broader range of people can thrive.
From the European Commission to the keynote stage
Helene Banner’s insights are grounded in an impressive career at the heart of European politics and communication. As a senior communication advisor at the European Commission, she gained firsthand experience of leadership, influence and communication within a complex international organization.
She also became the youngest EU spokesperson and later served in an advisory position to Ursula von der Leyen, the first female President of the European Commission. These experiences have given Helene a distinctive perspective on what happens behind the visible structures of leadership: how people communicate authority, how expectations influence behavior and how workplace cultures can either support or limit individual potential.
Today, she brings these experiences to the stage in an engaging and accessible way. Complex questions around leadership and inclusion become relatable, relevant and connected to the realities audiences recognize from their own organizations.
Let’s Just Be Imperfect, Ladies
Helene Banner’s project, “Let’s Just Be Imperfect, Ladies,” reflects her commitment to empowering women and creating more inclusive workplaces. It challenges expectations around how women should behave, perform and present themselves in professional environments and opens a wider conversation about authenticity in leadership.
Perfection can become a barrier when people feel they must meet every expectation before speaking up, taking responsibility or stepping into positions of influence. Helene invites audiences to look at these pressures from a different perspective and consider what becomes possible when leaders have greater freedom to be authentic.
Her approach makes female leadership tangible and relevant to everyday working life. Audiences are encouraged to recognize patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed and consider how individual behavior and organizational culture can change together.
Practical insights for workplace change
A keynote with Helene Banner combines motivation with practical perspectives that audiences can take back into their professional lives. She makes leadership concepts accessible without losing sight of the complex dynamics behind them.
Her keynotes can help audiences:
- Recognize invisible barriers that affect leadership, influence and opportunities in the workplace.
- Explore how authenticity can contribute to stronger and more inclusive leadership.
- Understand how women and men can contribute to meaningful cultural change.
- Challenge expectations and established patterns that may limit people’s ability to lead.
- Create a more diverse, empowered and dynamic workplace culture.
Helene’s motivational speaking style engages audiences while giving them concrete ideas to reflect on after the event. Her focus is on creating change that goes beyond good intentions and becomes part of how people communicate, collaborate and lead.
Book Helene Banner for your event
When you book Helene Banner for your event, you bring a speaker to the stage who understands leadership from both an institutional and personal perspective. Her background at the European Commission, combined with her work on female leadership and inclusion, enables her to connect high-level leadership dynamics with situations people encounter in their everyday working lives.
Helene’s keynotes are designed to inspire reflection while providing actionable insights for organizations seeking to overcome barriers, strengthen leadership dynamics and foster a more diverse and empowered workforce. Her ability to make complex topics engaging and accessible helps create conversations that can continue long after the keynote has ended.
For organizations looking to explore female leadership, authentic leadership and workplace inclusion, Helene Banner offers a compelling perspective shaped by experience at the highest levels of European communication and leadership. Book Keynote Speaker Helene Banner for an engaging presentation that challenges established expectations, encourages authentic leadership and provides audiences with practical inspiration for creating meaningful workplace change.
Keynotes
Keynote by speaker Helene Banner:
How Women lead differently - and how men can become allies and bridge-builders
An inspiring Leadership Keynote Speech that invites us to re-think what leadership means in times of change towards more gender balance in board rooms. Helene’s empowering story-telling speech gives women the courage to lead in their authentic, feminine way, with the strengths that most women already bring with them: emotional intelligence, empathy and the ability to share power. She encourages men to “
open the glass ceiling from above
” and to lead the change towards new work cultures that are open for diverse leadership styles - benefitting both men and women.
The speech not only opens doors and new perspectives, it also concludes with concrete action steps that women, men and organisations can take from tomorrow onwards to be part of the change.
open the glass ceiling from above
” and to lead the change towards new work cultures that are open for diverse leadership styles - benefitting both men and women.
The speech not only opens doors and new perspectives, it also concludes with concrete action steps that women, men and organisations can take from tomorrow onwards to be part of the change.
Keynote by speaker Helene Banner:
Why are not more women applying for top positions? - The secrets behind hiring women
Why are so many companies still struggling to hire more women into senior management positions? Spoiler: it is not because women lack confidence. The true reason is that we still create most work places with a "default man" in mind: the unwritten rules of success still favour men. In her Leadership Mentorings, Helene Banner has spoken to more than 200 women on their experience in top positions.
In this speech, she shares what women told her that they most need in order to thrive in top positions and what the most important hurdles were for them. She shares concrete measures on what companies can do in their work culture, communication and work patterns so that more women feel safe to thrive. Helene also shares how men can contribute to creating a work culture that is open for change.
In this speech, she shares what women told her that they most need in order to thrive in top positions and what the most important hurdles were for them. She shares concrete measures on what companies can do in their work culture, communication and work patterns so that more women feel safe to thrive. Helene also shares how men can contribute to creating a work culture that is open for change.
Keynote by speaker Helene Banner:
How to bring men on board for more diversity?
In many "
women leadership conferences
", there is an "
elephant in the room
": the men are missing. Many men feel frustrated and not really interested in the topic. How can we make the cause of gender balance "
attractive
" for men? How can we make it a business case rather than a "
nice-to-have
"? How can we make them feel seen when more women are in top positions?
After hundreds of conversations with women and men in top positions, Helene Banner shares the recipes to opens doors so that women and men can be part of the change, together. Her Keynote Speech is not only captivating but also has an empowering bridge-building effect on men and women in your organisation.
women leadership conferences
", there is an "
elephant in the room
": the men are missing. Many men feel frustrated and not really interested in the topic. How can we make the cause of gender balance "
attractive
" for men? How can we make it a business case rather than a "
nice-to-have
"? How can we make them feel seen when more women are in top positions?
After hundreds of conversations with women and men in top positions, Helene Banner shares the recipes to opens doors so that women and men can be part of the change, together. Her Keynote Speech is not only captivating but also has an empowering bridge-building effect on men and women in your organisation.
